Guidebook

http://www.nethack.org/v343/Guidebook.html

The NetHack Guidebook, formally A Guide to the Mazes of Menace, documents the basic gameplay and options of the NetHack game. This is the most important documentation included in NetHack itself. Though NetHack also includes help files to describe the map symbols, keyboard controls and options, the Guidebook introduces those things in more detail.

For most players, the Guidebook, or rather a certain portion of it, is a very important read. The Guidebook introduces the various item types, like armor and scrolls. The Guidebook is also the place to learn about Elbereth.

Access

If you have NetHack on your computer, then the installation should include a copy of the Guidebook. To access your copy, go find it and open it. Or you can visit the online copy from NetHack's official website.

When building and installing NetHack from source code, the makefiles typically do not install the Guidebook. Thus, you may find a NetHack installation with no Guidebook. You might also be unaware if your Unix clone distro stashed the Guidebook in /usr/local/share/doc/nethack/Guidebook.txt or some such place.

SLASH'EM players may access the Guidebook during the game, by pressing [?] and selecting "The SLASH'EM Guidebook."

Title

The guidebook bears the title A Guide to the Mazes of Menace. The subtitle is Guidebook for NetHack.

The name "Mazes of Menace" refers to the entire dungeon, and is no synonym for "Dungeons of Doom" or "Gehennom". "Dungeons of Doom" refers to the dungeon branch where you start the game. "Gehennom" is the dungeon branch that contains the Amulet of Yendor.

History of the Guidebook

Eric S. Raymond was the original author of the Guidebook. NetHack 2.2a seems to be the first version to include the Guidebook. The DevTeam "extensively edited and updated" the Guidebook for later versions.

Older versions did not have a Guidebook. Players had to rely on the in-game help. Since ancient Hack versions, there is a long help and a short help. The long help introduces NetHack as a "Dungeons and Dragons like game", describes the map symbols and introduces the keyboard controls. The short help only reviews the controls. Unlike the Guidebook, the in-game help does not describe the game's roles and races, nor does it detail the basic purpose of each type of item.

SLASH'EM modifies the Guidebook to introduce the new role and race selections, and the new configurable options, and to explain the multiple tilesets.

Long lists

The Guidebook contains many long lists. It is very exhaustive; its role is to document all controls, configuration options, and such.

• In Chapter 2, "What is going on here?", lists all of the roles of NetHack, which are: Archeologist, Barbarian, Caveman and Cavewoman, Healer, Knight, Monk, Priest and Priestess, Ranger, Rogue, Samurai, Tourist, Valkyrie, Wizard.
• Immediately after, Chapter 2 lists the races, which are: Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Human, Orc.
• Section 3.1 lists the parts of the status line, which are: Rank, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Alignment, Dungeon Level, Gold, Hit Points, Power, Armor Class, Experience, Time, and Hunger status.
• Section 3.3 lists the various ASCII characters that you find on the map: - and |, #, > and <, +, @, $, ^, ), [, %, ?, /, =, !, (, ", *, `, 0, -, {, }, \, I.
• Chapter 4, "Commands", lists the commands, which are: ?, Guidebook/, &, yuhjklbn, m, F, M, g, G, [[_]], ., a, A, ^A, c, C, ^C, d, D, ^D, e, E, f, i, I, o, O, p, P, ^P, q, Q, r, R, ^R, s, S, t, T, ^T, v, V, w, W, x, X, ^X, z, Z, ^Z, [[:]], ;, ', @, ^, ), [, =, ", (, *, $, +, \, !, #, #adjust, #chat, #conduct, #dip, #enhance, #force, #invoke, #jump, #loot, #monster, #name, #offer, #pray, #quit, #ride, #rub, #sit, #turn, #twoweapon, #untrap, #version, #wipe, #?, and in number_pad mode, h, j, k, l, N, u.
• Section 7.3 lists some types of armor in order of AC, which are: dragon scale mail, plate mail, crystal plate mail, bronze plate mail, splint mail, banded mail, dwarvish mithril-coat, elven mithril-coat, chain mail, orcish chain mail, scale mail, studded leather armor, ring mail, orcish ring mail, leather armor, leather jacket, and no armor.
• Section 9.4, "Customization Options", lists all of the options, which are: align, autodig, autopickup, autoquiver, boulder, catname, character, checkpoint, checkspace, cmdassist, confirm, DECgraphics, disclose, dogname, dungeon, effects, extmenu, female, fixinv, fruit, gender, help, horsename, IBMgraphics, ignitr, legacy, lit_corridor, lootabc, mail, male, menustyle, menu_deselect_all, menu_deselect_page, menu_first_page, menu_headings, menu_invert_all, menu_invert_page, menu_last_page, menu_next_page, menu_previous_page, menu_search, menu_select_all, menu_select_page, monsters, msghistory, msg_window, name, news, null, number_pad, objects, packorder, perm_invent, pettype, pickup_burden, pickup_types, prayconfirm, pushweapon, race, rest_on_space, role, runmode, safe_pet, scores, showexp, showrace, showscore, silent, sortpack, sound, sparkle, standout, suppress_alert, time, timed_delay, tombstone, toptenwin, traps, travel, verbose, windowtype, and on some windowing systems, align_message, align_status, ascii_map, color, eight_bit_tty, font_map, font_menu, font_message, font_status, font_text, font_size_map, font_size_menu, font_size_message, font_size_status, font_size_text, fullscreen, hilite_pet, large_font, map_mode, mouse_support, player_selection, popup_dialog, preload_tiles, scroll_amount, scroll_margin, softkeyboard, splash_screen, tiled_map, tile_file, tile_height, tile_width, use_inverse, vary_msgcount, windowcolors, wraptext, and on some operating systems, altkeyhandler, altmeta, BIOS, flush, MACgraphics, page_wait, rawio, soundcard, subkeyvalue, video, videocolors, videoshades.
• Chapter 12, "Credits", is a long list of contributors to the game itself, including the original Hack developers and the persons who did various ports.