Player's misconceptions

This page will attempt to dispel common assumptions and misconceptions that many new players (and even some experienced players) may have about NetHack.

Nutrition

Misconception: Drinking water is necessary.

The Guidebook's advice on this matter is misleading, stating that "although creatures can survive long periods of time without food, there is a physiological need for water". Though that is true for real life, it surely does not apply for the game, where there is absolutely no need to drink water at all — instead of being healthy, quaffing from fountains can be downright dangerous.

Misconception: Because corpses are dangerous to eat, they should be saved for emergencies

Eating a corpse can backfire in three ways. One is that the corpse is inherently dangerous; this depends on the type of monster that the corpse comes from, and is deterministic. Another is that the attempt to eat has random side effects, but these happen with other food too. The final way, and the one with the worst consequences, is that the monster died too long ago; this causes food poisoning which is fatal unless cured. As such, corpses should be eaten immediately or not at all (which depends on the monster in question). Lizard and lichen corpses are exceptions to this general rule, as they last indefinitely.

Misconception: "I would not eat 'that' in real life, so my character also probably should not"

Remember: Nethack is not real life. Though most of us would not eat a sewer rat or a (uncooked!) jackal's corpse — and would most probably get ill if we did —, that is not an issue for your alter ego in the game. Therefore, as stated above, unless there is something intrinsically harmful about a particular corpse — such as the kobold's, which are poisonous, or a cockatrice's, which causes stoning —, and providing it is fresh, it will probably be safe for consuming.

Misconception: Eating pet corpses is bad.

There is no specific penalty for eating a pet's corpse after the creature is already dead — actually killing it, though, incurs into a penalty of a -15 Alignment and -1 Luck. Eating a domestic cat or dog corpse will give you the Aggravate monster intrinsic, but this applies whether it had been a pet or not.

Magic

Misconception: Wizards are better at reading spellbooks.

In fact, the formula that determines the chance of successfully reading a spellbook is the same for all roles (and, just for completeness, all races and alignments). The only advantage Wizards have in reading books is that, when attempting to read an uncursed book with less than 100% chance of success, they are given a warning and prompted whether to continue reading. The actual success chance, however, is the same as for all other roles.

Misconception: The player should never wear a single piece of metal armor if intending to cast.

Metal generally does tend to hinder casting, but some types of armor made of metal have much less effect than many players may think. For example, a Wizard with 18 Int can wear a metal helmet or metal boots and can still cast low-level spells with 0% failure, and will only see a small increase in fail rate for higher-level spells.

Behavior

Misconception: A Chaotic character can kill anything without penalties of any kind.

Actually, Chaotic characters get alignment penalties for most of the same things that characters of other alignments do, such as killing coaligned peaceful monsters or killing always-peaceful humans. See the Alignment record page for more details on alignment penalties and bonuses.

Misconception: Offering a human corpse is bad.

There is no specific penalty (or, for that matter, bonus) for #offering human corpses — they are just standard sacrifices. Of course, sacrificing one's own race has its peculiarities, but they do not apply more for a human offering another human than, say, a gnome offering another gnome.

Attributes

Misconception: Gauntlets of power are required to maximize carrying capacity.

Fact: Carrying capacity is based on more than just Strength, and also has a limit. Specifically, the formula is:

((Str + Con) * 25) + 50

Further, the result is capped at 1000. Therefore, if (Str + Con) >= 38, carry capacity is maxed, and all races other than elf can reach this without Gauntlets of power or any other additional equipment.