User:Qwip

I've been playing NetHack on and off since early 2006. All games have been played locally since I often play during particularly boring conference calls at work.

I've never ascended.

I try to play with a different character name every game. If my character doesn't have a name I like, I can't be bothered to care about the character during the somewhat boring first few levels. I maintain a text file with names that I've collected, so that I have a good name to use when my next character dies. My favorite character name was Nat Heck. He died a quick death early in my hacking career. :-(

Spoiler Philosophy

I originally started playing with the intentional of avoiding all spoilers.

Then I amended my philosophy to reading spoilers only for those things that I'd already encountered. Of course, I naturally ended up reading about other stuff too. For example, I had heard about the fake amulet and the vibrating square, yet I've never seen either. I also thought that my character at least ought to know what skills were learnable and what the maximum skill levels were.

And by reading more, and reading John Harris' @Play columns, I came to slowly accept that being "spoiled" was nearly required in a game like NetHack. Although I did spend some time and zorkmids trying to see many (all?) of the Oracle's major consultations.

Now when I play, I immediately open up this wiki as a guidebook for what intrinsics each corpse might provide.

Current Character: Etrusca

Neutral Human Valkyrie, XL 15

I feel like I'm finally starting to play patiently and intelligently. (Having a generous RNG helps, too!)

Early in my game (Dlvl4?), I dipped some cursed potions to dilute them in a fountain and summoned a hostile water demon -- which then proceeded to summon more water demons. Instead of attacking and dying, I used Elbereth liberally until I could escape the room to the relative safety of a hallway while my pets (horse and dog) received all the wet aggro. Once my pets were killed off, I was cornered in a hallway between summoned water demons just 3 squares from a shopkeeper's door. Standing still on a dusty Elbereth, I started trying on each of 4 uncursed, but unidentified rings. I knew this would be the end of Etrusca unless I found the Ring of Conflict. The 4th ring caused "The water demon hits the water demon" messages to spam across the screen. After a few rounds of minding my own business amid the fracas, I was able to get into the shop and take off the ring. When 2 more demons approached the doorway of the store, I was able to stand 1 square away from the shopkeeper and put the =oConflict back on to let him dispatch the final demons.

I felt triumphant at the outcome of that battle and my ability to succeed in what previously had seemed an insurmountable situation.

The RNG has been very good to me:

• found wand of wishing in sokoban (2 ?oCharging (oops, didn't see first 1 appear in inventory when I engrave ID'd the wand), default +2GDSM, holy water, with 1-2 wishes left?)
• found 2 luckstones and 4 touchstones (1 blessed) in gnomish mines
• found a magic whistle
• got BoH from sokoban, and another cursed one from a bones file
• found 2 cloaks of magic resistances (1 from a bones file on Dlvl12 that suggested what type of cloak it was)
• found 1 blessed scroll of identify that identified all of my inventory items
• found amulet of reflection in jewelry store

The RNG has been stingy with altars though:

• Between Dlvl1 and 15, only altar is in Minetown, and it's cross-aligned. So I had to wish for holy water.

Artifacts:

• I found excalibur in a bones file, but I'm the wrong alignment and my god is angry at me (prayed too soon) so I've left it in my closet for now.
• Since I don't yet have a co-aligned altar, I haven't begun to sacrifice.

Special Levels:

• I found (and sacked) Fort Ludios for the first time.
• I found the Rogue Level for the first time -- and my quest portal is there, too!

Pets

Dog = dead

Dog = dead

Horse = dead

Dog ==> Lich ==> Trapper :-(

Cat ==> QueenBee = died at Fort Ludios

Cat ==> Centaur ==> QueenBee = died at Fort Ludios

Dog ==> PitFiend (and saw him fall in a pit in Ludios. lol)

Horse ==> Gold Golem :-\

Cat ==> Vampire (now a Vampire Lord w/ AC: -18!)

Plans for Etrusca

1. Complete quest level
2. delve down 1-2 more Dlvls looking for an altar
3. if no altars found, wish for a uncursed figurine of a white unicorn to convert the minetown altar. (I'm pretty confident that Priest of Odin is no match for "VampiraKitty"!)
4. sacrifice most of the lizard corpses I've been keeping with me (are they still sacrificeable...?)