NetHackWiki:Ask an expert/Archive4

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Revision as of 22:32, 20 August 2008 by 24.225.69.8 (talk) (→‎elemental planes)
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NetHack can be a monstrously complicated game, so it's not unnatural to seek help from time to time. Conventional sources of wisdom are:

Additionally, a number of knowledgeable players are active on this wiki, so feel free to ask a question below and somebody is sure to answer it eventually. If you want to discuss a topic that is not about NetHack, please discuss it at the community portal.

Archives of this page: 1, 2, 3

Start a new section on the bottom of this page for each question.

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Most hopeless death

So I was on IRC tonight, and we were having some fun chatting. One guy says he's in the mines and has one hp. Then:

(name clipped) (Wiz Hum Mal Cha), 1136 points, killed by a worthless piece of white glass

What's the most pathetic death you've seen? Fredil Yupigo 01:54, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

I was killed trying to mount my pony in a game of Net Nethack. I slipped and died. --216.228.41.12 02:24, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

I died by kicking a wall ItazuEstamaru 16:26, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

I died eating an egg. Turned out to be from a cockatrice, who would have known? -Billob

How to identify gray stones in containers?

I am familiar with the kick test for seeing if a gray stone is a loadstone. However, how can one determine if a gray stone in a container is a loadstone? After all, the container weight makes it impossible to kick the container, regardless of the stone inside. RJaguar3 14:24, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know, this is one of those corner cases where there's no perfect strategy. I think you'll either have to take a chance and grab it, or else leave it alone. -- Killian 14:55, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
If you can get a gelatinous cube to eat the container, and then kill it, the suspected loadstone will end up on the floor. Maybe then you'll be able to kick it. 91.84.221.238 15:08, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
You can #Force the container with a blunt object, such as a quarterstaff, repeatedly to destroy the container; the contents will then be left on the ground. Be sure to take out potions and such before doing so, though. Fredil Yupigo 17:49, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
Ideally, but very tedious: Take out everything but the mystery stone. Then get another container of the same kind, and an identified safe grey stone of any kind. Drop all your inventory and lift each container in turn. If they have the same effect on you ("Burdened" in both cases, say, or nothing in both cases) then gradually pick up other items and repeat. If they both roll over from burdened to stressed on the same round, then it's not a loadstone; if one jumps before the other, it is. More practically: take out everything but the mystery stone and lift the container. If it's a loadstone, it will be a bigger-than-expected burden.
But, since the DevTeam thinks of everything, the game offers a rare kindness for your situation: loadstones generated in containers will not always autocurse the first time you pick them up. This happened to me two hours ago. Stupidly, I picked it up again.--Jack
My policy is not to retrieve a gray stone from a container if I even suspect that it's a loadstone. It's not worth the risk, especially considering the guaranteed luckstone at the bottom of the Mines. Still, all four gray stones in vanilla NetHack have their unique properties: touchstones go "scritch, scritch" when you rub an iron object on them; flint stones draw no price when offered in a general store; loadstones fail the kick test; and luckstones have none of the preceding properties. (If you're playing SLASH'EM, you also have the healthstone to deal with.) In this way, the four gray stones can be identified, and perhaps you can figure out which stone you're looking at.--Ray Chason 14:24, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
You could pick up the container. It should be much heavier with a loadstone. --24.225.69.8 06:29, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Lance training

Does pounding train the lance skill, and does it matter whether you're mounted or unmounted? What about attacking with the lance while on foot? Getting my lance skill up could be difficult if the only option is to attack while mounted and risk breaking it every time. 404notfound 18:57, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Astral fun!

I was playing wizard mode games on the astral plane, and saw a player monster named "Andy the invisible Necromancer". I killed him, and in his corpse were two wands of death - 0:3 and 0:7! What were the odds of that!? Fredil Yupigo 01:25, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

By my calculations, the chance of an Astral PM being generated with 2+ wands of death is about 0.1%. There are apparently 3–6 of them on Astral, so the exact chance would depend on how many you kill and loot. -- Killian 02:09, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Patching Nethack for Windows

I've followed the patching page you have here, but I keep getting the same error. When I get to this point:

  • Start cmd.exe and do the following:
cd c:\nh343
path=c:\mingw\bin
patch -p1 < nh343-menucolor.diff

It gives me this message, "'patch' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program of batch file." I don't know what's up, help!

Checking my own MinGW installation, I see that patch is in c:\msys\1.0\bin. MSYS seems to have been split off from MinGW at some point. You'll need that too, and the path line should be path=c:\mingw\bin;c:\msys\1.0\bin;%PATH%.--Ray Chason 19:05, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
I just went to the Patching page and it already has a way to get the patch program:
Did you do that? Does the file c:\mingw\bin\patch.exe exist? If not, you'll need to install it.--Ray Chason 19:09, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
Okay, I see that I had unpacked the patch zip wrong. But now I get this error:
"E:\nethacksrc>patch -p1 < nh343-menucolor.diff
patching file include/color.h
Assertion failed: hunk, file ../patch-2.5.9-src/patch.c, line 354
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information."
Thanks for the help so far though.

The Platinum Yendorian Express Card and wizards

So, I'm playing a wizard and I am getting close to the castle and will get my wand of wishing. I have almost all resistances (save for disintegrate, but I'm working on it.) and I was thinking of making one of my wishes the PYEC. The Wish page says it's ok for a Neutral character to wish for it, yet the PYEC is an intelligent artifact and it says it will blast me if I use it if I'm not the proper role. So, my question is - should I wish for the card or not? Even if it blasts me, will I still be able to recharge my items with it?

If you're neither neutral nor a Tourist, forget about the PYEC -- it will evade your grasp. If you're neutral but not a tourist, you can charge things with the PYEC, but you will only get the uncursed charging effect. The bottom line here is never charge a wand of wishing or magic marker with the PYEC unless you are a Tourist, because these objects can be charged only once and you want that charge to be the blessed kind. Use a blessed scroll of charging instead.
My style is never to wish for artifacts, not just for the conduct but also because I don't accept the risk of failure. I'll wish for a magic marker if I must, and two scrolls of charging if that's also necessary; once I have a magic marker and have identified the scroll of charging, I tend to find I can get all the charges I need.--Ray Chason 18:36, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
I guess I'll forget about it then. Also, the character is in Explore mode so his score and conduct don't really matter that much. I think I'll use the wishes for 2 blessed scrolls of charging, a marker and....for something else I can't think of right now. (gotta check what I need)

Master Mind Flayers

Hello everyone, I have a question re Mind Flayers. I have yet to meet one but my friend as well as various nethack spoilers tell me that they can make you forget items you have previously identified. My question then is this: I have identified a gem, and #name'd it as such. If a Mind Flayer removes my memory of that identified gem will the #name remain? If so would #name'ing all my items be a viable defense?


Thanks,

Tim


Yes, if you individually name each item, then you will remember the names after an amnesia attack (note that amnesia might make you forget the names you assigned for each class of items). See #name for more information. —Shijun 22:46, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Loss of ability to search

Something rather strange happened in a recent game. Very early on (first 500 turns or so) I failed in trying to convert an altar and ended up converting myself. I knew this made the game unwinnable, but decided to play on for fun. (Because it was just after finding a WoW and giving myself a nice ascension-quality armor kit, no less!) I was a neutral human archaeologist, and sacrificed a werewolf, without thinking, pissing off my god severely. I forgot that this also made the altar chaotic, so I sacrificed again to appease my god and ended up getting converted.

Anyway, the strange part is that I apparently couldn't search for anything--doors, traps--at all after this. No matter how long I searched in a spot where I knew there was a door, I never found it, although digging would yield "You break through a secret door?" Is this some weird punishment I've never seen before, or is it possible that my luck was so low as to make successful searching completely impossible? How low would this have to be, if so? (I played about 10 000 turns total before succumbing to a mind flayer.)


elemental planes

I'm never able to make it past the elemental planes. What always happens is archons and titans keep summoning more of each other until the entire level is filled with them. Wearing a ring of conflict doesn't seem to be enough to thin their numbers, unfortunately. What am I supposed to do? How do you deal with the hordes of archons? I'm wondering - perhaps I'm genociding too many classes of monsters and thus, their summon spells summon more of each other? Maybe I should pursue a more minimalist genociding strategy?

You shouldn't try to kill them all of them. Archons and others can be zapped with a wand of teleportation. If you get surrounded, you can't teleport yourself but you might get away by breaking a wand of teleportation. --24.225.69.8 22:32, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
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