User:Umbire the Phantom/The Guide to NetHack 1.3d for Junethack Players and Other Determined Daredevils
- I know this is userspace, but feel free to edit as you like, just don't be a jerk.
Contents
So, you wanna play 1.3d.
If you're here, you're clearly seeking advice on making any amount of progress in NetHack 1.3d, which is a version of the NetHack we all know and love - it's both old enough to run for President (and would legitimately be a better candidate than the current-at-time-of-writing crop but I digress), and its age definitely shows accordingly, for better and worse.
Given that most of the information documentated on this wiki prioritizes current vanilla and in general requires a lot of leg work to get and keep up-to-date, the usefulness of the information that follows is subject to constant shifts - as I and others actually play this game more and see what's up, we'll fill out this guide (and ideally the wiki) appropriately.
How much use you in particular will get out of this guide is also contingent on your answer to the following question...
Is it currently June?
- For context, see Junethack.
No
Then what are you doing here?
...no, but really. Hardfought folks tend to glom to vanilla a fair bit, though a few variants are still decently represented - even among the "lesser-known" versions and variants, this one isn't exactly played too often. so if you've found this page, and you're not playing 1.3d specifically for June reasons, you have to be:
- Someone like me who'll try damn near anything once;
- Someone on a random wiki binge which, whom among us and all;
- Someone who's actually working on this guide as well;[1]
- The vanishingly rare Actual 1.3d Player™, or;
- Some secret fifth thing I haven't accounted for above.
In any event, proceed to "Yes" below if you're genuinely interested in knowing more.
Yes
Okay so here's the June trophies and some of the prerequisites needed for them:
- Get crowned.
- Go to Hell (as in the set of levels from DL 30 on).
- Get fire resistance before entering, probably from crowning as above. Enter without it or lose it while inside, and you lose the game.
- Beat up Rodney.
- Ascend with the Amulet (I think).
This space below, we'll get into the meat and potatoes of accomplishing said goals and doing so with some level of consistency, insofar as 1.3d permits.
Just tell me how to beat the game!
Alright, alright, you're no fun...
A super-consistent means of beating the game is to do the following:
- A source of teleport control.
- A source of fire resistance as mentioned above.
- Some teleport scrolls.
- A source of confusion.
- A way to enter the Wizard's Tower, such as levitation.
- ...yeah, you can see where I'm going with this, right?
So the tl;dr, as helpfully recited to me by amateurhour, is to level teleport to the bottom, get the Amulet from under the Wziard's hellhound, level teleport back to dungeon level 1, and... leave. That's it. You win.
...That's it!?
That's yer lot.
Now, are you not interested in a quick and easy win, but truly want to know the ins and outs of this wonderfully weird early installment?[2]
Then keep on readin'.
A 1.3d Primer
Assuming you haven't read the article on NetHack 1.3d, or (much more likely) can't be bothered to tab repeatedly between pages, we'll cover the relative basics in this section. We're working with Hardfought's version of the game, so everything below this line assumes you are playing 1.3d specifically on Hardfought - i.e. none of the hard mode stuff is active, contributions from Ken Arromdee[3] are enabled, and there's some necessary fixes and other stuff backported.
Controls and options
Probably the most important section, given the help commands in-game are... a bit obtuse about what you can and can't do. Work-in-progress.
Some of the most important things to remember:
- There are much fewer free actions, if any at all, and even things as simple as checking your square or your wallet consumes a turn.
- No autotravel or autofill.
- You can't displace pets or other peaceful monsters, so movement is even more tedious.
Command | Key/Extended | Short Description |
---|---|---|
Engrave | E | Write on the floor. You can ID-test wands this way, but you can't write afterward if the wand you test makes the engraving vanish or polymorphs it. |
Check inventory | i | Peek at your inventory. No navigation between pages outside of "space to next page", unfortunately. |
Inventory by type | I | Checks inventory by an object type that you select by pressing its symbol.[4] |
Move without pickup | m | Exactly what it says on the tin - move without acknowledging items. No difference between this and normal movement when moving into an adjacent monster. |
Redraw | Ctrl + R | Redraws the screen. You'll need to do this fairly often, since it won't always auto-update for you. |
Search | s | Searches around you. Same as modern NetHack. |
Transcribe | x | Attempt to transcribe a book. Succeed and you learn a spell, fail and you get the usual bad effects - regardless, this will always use up the book. Yes, even if you're blind or confused at the time. |
List spells | X | Display all known spells. |
Count gold | $ | Counts your gold and uses up a turn doing what you could've done by looking at the lower left corner of your interface.[4] |
#cast | Extended | Yes, you need to type this out to actually cast your known spells. |
#dip | Extended | Lets you dip items into a potion or into a fountain on your square. |
#pray | Extended | Pray to the gods, and pray they actually answer what you were asking for in the first place. |
#remove | Extended | Attempts to remove a heavy iron ball attached to your leg. |
#sit | Extended | Sits down on your current square, roughly the same as modern NetHack. |
You
You get to pick a role and a gender.
...and that's it. 1.3d was long before things like alignment or race were introduced by the <sarcasm>Woke Liberal NetHack DevTeam.</sarcasm> As such, character creation is pretty barebones and straightforward, with your choice of roles as follows - all weapons and armor are at +0 unless specified:
- Archeologist - Back when Indy was fresh and not yet milked. Has intrinsic stealth and speed. Starts with a pick-axe, studded leather armor, two random potions, 3 stacks of food rations, and an entire ice box.
- Cave-(wo)man - A specimen as old as Hack itself. Starts with a +1 club, a +1 bow, a stack of arrows, and leather armor.
- Elf - The Ranger before Rangers. Starts with a short sword, a bow, a stack of arrows, and either elfin chain mail or an elven cloak.
- Fighter - The pre-Conanization Barbarian. Starts with a two-handed sword and ring mail.
- Healer - Paging Doctor P. Roe Tagonist. Has intrinsic poison resistance. Starts with a stethoscope, a stack of 4 potions each of healing and extra healing, and a bunch of apples.
- Knight - Sorry rough riders, no horses yet. Starts with a long sword, a +2 spear, a +1 ring mail, a helmet, a shield, and a pair of gloves.
- Ninja - That role what got replaced by the Rogue. Has intrinsic stealth and speed. Starts with a katana, +1 leather armor and a stack of shuriken.
- Priest - Because someone needed to have the gods' favor in this game. Starts with chain mail, a shield, a +1 mace, and two random spellbooks.
- Samurai - Insert bastardized Japanese truism here. Has intrinsic speed. Starts with a katana, a +1 bow, a stack of arrows, and splint mail.
- Tourist - In case you thought NetHack was ever not anachronistic by design. Starts with ten stacks of food items, 2 potions of extra healing, an expensive camera, and a stack of +2 darts.
- Valkyrie - Still The Best 1987. Has intrinsic stealth and cold resistance. Starts with a +1 long sword, a +3 shield, and a food ration stack.
- Wizard - In all its unpatched glory. Starts with 2 random rings, 2 random wands, 3 random scrolls, 2 random potions, and an elven cloak.
Your attributes
These here 're your stats:
- Experience - Capped at XL 14 (which is the Quest-ready threshold in vanilla).
- Hit points - The most important number.
- Magical energy - If you have this, you can cast stuff, simple as.
- Armor class - The second most important number.
- Strength - No faffin' around with intelligence or dexterity yet.
Your pet
...is always a little dog. They'll eat damn near any corpse if it isn't poisonous, but aren't nearly as reliable for detecting cursed items or traps - there's no messages for reluctant movement, and traps they step on aren't highlighted, because you can't have nice things.
If a pet refuses to pick up an item even after moving over it, it's probably cursed. Similarly, if you get a message about them stepping on a trap, search that area to manually reveal it.
Prayer
...is a crapshoot. Crowning is even more so.
The Dungeons of Doom
NetHack 1.3d's dungeon is a single-branch affair that's a maximum of 40 levels long, with the standard goal of "retrieve the Amulet of Yendor or die trying": go in, get as deep as you can, get the Amulet, get out with the Amulet, win. There's a basic suite of special rooms:
- Vaults: Same as in vanilla, you can dig your way to them or use the "ad aerarium" vault teleporter, then dig or warp your way out.
- Shops: With attendant shopkeeper as expected, though the mechanics are very unrefined compared to vanilla. More on them below.
- Throne rooms: No special "ruler" yet, but has the expected court of monsters.
- Treasure zoos: Pretty much the same as in vanilla.
- Beehives
- Crypts
- Swamp
After roughly 25 or so levels of room-and-corridor maps, you start getting the old-fashioned mazes - on each maze level, an enormous rock in a dead-end square has a wand of wishing and yes, you can obtain multiple such wands.
Dungeon levels 30+ also count as Hell, the conceptual ancestor to Gehennom - these levels are upstairs-only, meaning you can only access them via level teleportation. You also need to have fire resistance for those levels or you die. Lost that ring of fire resistance while in there? You die. Relying on a polyself that timed out? You die. Lose your intrinsic to a gremlin? Then you're clearly on a different version because 1.3d doesn't have those, so that's one less thing for you to fear. But one way or another, you need fire resistance. Of course, if you can get this far you also can grab at least one wand of wishing, and if you do you basically win the game.
The Wizard of Yendor awaits in a small room in the center of the bottom-most maze level, surrounded by water and accompanied by a hell hound - the Amulet of Yendor is in his possession. Once you beat him and/or take it, make your way back up and out of the dungeon and escape with the Amulet to secure victory.
Shops
1.3d shops are... interesting, to say the least:
- Prices are determined basically at random each time you enter and exit, sure, why not, fuck you. It's not all bad - you can actually exploit this for profit using the old pet theft approach.
- Normal random loot can generate in the room where a shop is made.
- Multiple pieces of inventory can generate on a square.
- Killed monster drops belong to the shop as usual except for their gold - this means no fear of killing leprechauns in a shop and losing the gold they stole.
- The stuff randomly generated in the "open" row by the entrance wall may or may not also be counted as part of its inventory.
- The game doesn't disclose actual prices (which as mentioned are random anyway because "fuck you"), but at least it tells you what is and isn't paid for.
- Features and other stuff can generate in shops too, including traps also because "fuck you".
Shop types are the general store, liquor, used armor, weapons, wands, rings, bookstores, and food stores.
Dungeon features
- Pools. Step in one and you drown unless you're in a monster form that can swim.
- Fountains, which work pretty close to how they do in vanilla NetHack.
- Thrones. Sit on them to work their magic.
Traps
- bear trap
- arrow trap
- dart trap
- trapdoor
- teleportation trap
- pit
- sleeping gas trap
- magic trap
- squeaky board
- web
- spiked pit
- level teleporter
- anti-magic field
- rust trap
Objects
Objects that debut in this version are indicated in boldface.
Artifacts
There's only two artifact weapons and nothing else, though this is before 3.0.0 - that means you can make multiple artifact weapons.
- Orcrist can be created by naming any two-handed sword, and deals +d10 to orcs. Given the sheer amount of orcs that occur early on, this may be genuinely worth considering.
- Excalibur is created vaguely similar to modern versions, but there are critical differences: you must first name a long sword Excalibur and then #dip it into a fountain, with a 2⁄15 chance of the Lady of the Lake blessing the sword.[5] Excalibur has no special properties of its own, but this enchants it to +5, uncurses it and rustproofs it - "really good long sword" is generally more than sufficient for pretty much anyone.
Amulets
...do not exist as a formal object class. There's only the two thus far:
- The Amulet of Yendor, your primary objective.
- The cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor, a cheap plastic imitation of your primary objective introduced in Hack 1.0.3 to stop cheap plastic imitations of an ascension run that intentionally or otherwise take advantage of bones.
Food
Eat or die.
- Food ration: Probably the most reliable food in light of dead monsters being not-that-great for nutrition which, see below.
- Tripe ration: Dog food.
- Dead monster: There are two things that are very important to note about monster corpses in 1.3d.
- They confer their intrinsics silently. This is beyond annoying in the case of dead leprechauns, which fits with the annoying qualities of live ones.
- They are not nearly as reliable as they are in modern NetHack. In particular, you can end up feeling sick and losing HP from not eating a corpse immediately - this is ostensibly logical for the raw meat of a freshly-killed (and possibly sentient) being, but unfortunately also sets you back quite a bit when you're just trying to survive and gather permafood. You can still subsist on them, but keep this in mind.
- dead lizard: Basically modern lizard corpses, minus the actual lizard monster.
- pancake
- fortune cookie
- carrot
- slice of pizza
- cream pie
- Tin: Contains randomly-chosen food such as peaches or even spinach.
- orange
- apple
- pear
- melon
- banana
- candy bar
- egg
- clove of garlic
- lump of royal jelly
Tin chart
Message | Nutrition |
---|---|
It contains spinach - this makes you feel like Popeye! | 600, increases strength |
It contains salmon - not bad! | 60, causes slippery fingers |
It contains first quality peaches - what a surprise! | 40 |
It contains apple juice - perhaps not what you hoped for. | 20 |
It contains some nondescript substance, tasting awfully. | 500 |
It contains rotten meat. You vomit. | -50 |
It turns out to be empty. | 0 |
Weapons
- arrow
- sling bullet
- crossbow bolt
- dart
- shuriken
- rock
- boomerang
- mace
- axe
- flail
- long sword
- two handed sword
- dagger
- worm tooth
- crysknife
- aklys
- bardiche
- bec de corbin
- bill-guisarme
- club
- fauchard
- glaive
- guisarme
- halberd
- lucern hammer
- javelin
- katana
- lance
- morning star
- partisan
- ranseur
- scimitar
- spetum
- broad sword
- short sword
- trident
- voulge
- spear
- bow
- sling
- crossbow
Tools
- whistle
- leash
- magic whistle
- expensive camera
- pick-axe
- magic marker
- stethoscope
- can opener
- Ice box, which appears as a large box and is the only container available. Same as in vanilla minus the prospect that you should lug one around constantly, which is only significantly inconvenient in 1.3d (as opposed to "practically inadvisable" in modern NetHack).
Armor
- helmet
- plate mail
- splint mail
- banded mail
- chain mail
- scale mail
- ring mail
- studded leather armor
- Elfin chain mail: A precursor to the elven mithril-coat.
- bronze plate mail
- crystal plate mail
- leather armor
- elven cloak
- shield
- pair of gloves
Potions
- potion of restore strength
- potion of gain energy
- potion of booze
- potion of invisibility
- potion of fruit juice
- Potion of healing: heals for miniscule amount of HP.
- potion of paralysis
- potion of monster detection
- Potion of object detection: Reveals object locations, but doesn't leave them marked on the map.
- potion of sickness
- potion of confusion
- potion of gain strength
- potion of speed
- potion of blindness
- potion of gain level
- potion of extra healing
- potion of levitation
- potion of hallucination
- Potion of holy water: Appears as a random potion, because this is well before it was decided water should have the same appearance in every game. Blesses whatever you dip into it.
Scrolls
- scroll of mail
- scroll of enchant armor
- scroll of destroy armor
- scroll of confuse monster
- scroll of scare monster
- Scroll of blank paper: Has its own label, for some stupid reason. Same as in vanilla, don't let the read message fool you.
- scroll of remove curse
- scroll of enchant weapon
- Scroll of damage weapon: Basically a cursed scroll of enchant weapon.
- scroll of create monster
- scroll of taming
- Scroll of genocide: Same as uncursed genocide in vanilla, though there's usually only one monster per symbol for most classes.
- scroll of light: Lights a room, doesn't work on corridors.
- scroll of teleportation
- scroll of gold detection
- scroll of food detection
- scroll of identify
- scroll of magic mapping
- Scroll of amnesia: Wipes your memory of the current floor and known spells. Doesn't seem to touch known items, though.
- scroll of fire: Blows you up for fire damage that lowers your max HP. Seemingly no damage to inventory as of yet.
- scroll of punishment
Wands
- wand of light
- wand of secret door detection
- wand of create monster
- wand of wishing: Works as you'd expect, but you can get multiple wands, and reliably so at that - find one and odds are you just win.
- wand of striking
- wand of nothing
- wand of slow monster
- wand of speed monster
- wand of undead turning
- wand of polymorph
- wand of cancellation
- wand of teleportation
- wand of make invisible
- wand of probing
- wand of digging
- wand of magic missile
- wand of fire
- wand of sleep
- wand of cold
- wand of death
Spellbooks
Spellbooks as an item class make their debut here.
- spellbook of magic missile
- spellbook of fireball
- spellbook of sleep
- spellbook of cone of cold
- spellbook of finger of death
- spellbook of healing
- spellbook of detect monsters
- spellbook of force bolt
- spellbook of light
- spellbook of confuse monster
- spellbook of cure blindness
- spellbook of slow monster
- spellbook of create monster
- spellbook of detect food
- spellbook of haste self
- spellbook of cause fear
- spellbook of cure sickness
- spellbook of detect unseen
- spellbook of extra healing
- spellbook of charm monster
- spellbook of levitation
- spellbook of restore strength
- spellbook of invisibility
- spellbook of detect treasure
- spellbook of dig
- spellbook of remove curse
- spellbook of magic mapping
- spellbook of identify
- spellbook of turn undead
- spellbook of polymorph
- spellbook of create familiar
- spellbook of teleport away
- spellbook of cancellation
- Spellbook of genocide: Yes, really. If you successfully learn this spell and have the spare energy for it, then you potentially just win the game.
Rings
- Ring of adornment: Does nothing since there's no charisma stat.
- ring of teleportation
- ring of regeneration
- ring of searching
- ring of see invisible
- ring of stealth
- ring of levitation
- ring of poison resistance
- ring of aggravate monster
- ring of hunger
- ring of fire resistance
- ring of cold resistance
- ring of protection from shape changers
- ring of conflict
- ring of gain strength
- ring of increase damage
- ring of protection
- ring of warning
- ring of teleport control
Gems
- dilithium crystal
- diamond
- ruby
- sapphire
- emerald
- turquoise stone
- aquamarine stone
- tourmaline stone
- topaz stone
- opal stone
- garnet stone
- amethyst stone
- agate stone
- onyx stone
- jasper stone
- jade stone
- Worthless glass: In blue, red, yellow, and green flavors.
Other items
Bestiary
Monsters that debut in this version are in boldface, while monsters backported to this version are in italics. Of note is that percentage chances for corpse intrinsics are not yet a thing - you eat something, you get its intrinsic, good or bad.
Notes not yet complete, so proceed with caution.
Name | Symbol | Notes |
---|---|---|
acid blob | a | Roughly the same as vanilla, including the acid passive - weapon corrosion is just disenchantment, so that can actually suck quite a bit. Poisonous to eat rather than acidic - avoid doing so if possible. |
bat | B | |
centaur | C | |
chameleon | : | |
cockatrice | c | |
demon | & | Late-game enemies and on-call kill squad for angry gods. |
dog | d | What little dogs grow up into. |
dragon | D | Basically the ancestor of the modern red dragon, and probably your ideal fire resistance corpse. |
ettin | e | |
floating eye | E | Roughly the same as vanilla, except pets are somehow immune - let them do the killing and snap up the corpse for yourself. Conveys telepathy. |
fog cloud | f | Unremarkable outside of the fact they can leave corpses. |
freezing sphere | F | Blows up and tries to frost you. |
flaming sphere | F | Blows up and tries to flambé you. |
gelatinous cube | g | Also not acidic, though not poisonous either. |
ghost | Usually the result of finding where some other player died, so expect many or most of them to be from June. Basically the same as vanilla - not too lethal themselves, but hard to hit, so mind your surroundings while swinging away. | |
giant | 9 | |
giant ant | A | The ancestor of Team a, roughly equivalent to the modern soldier ant - they move rather skittishly, their stings can lower your strength, and dead ones are poisonous to eat. |
giant beetle | b | |
giant eel | ; | |
gnome | G | |
guard | @ | |
hell hound | d | Doesn't have a breath weapon. |
hobgoblin | H | |
homunculus | h | |
imp | i | |
jackal | J | |
jaguar | j | |
killer bee | k | |
large dog | d | What normal dogs grow up into. |
leocrotta | l | |
leprechaun | L | Very annoying: they move to avoid you and attack you for your gold as usual, but with the caveat that they'll still attack even in the former cases. They're also more common, you can't force fight them either, and there's no bags - they do beeline towards any gold on the floor, so you can drop your gold strategically to trap one or restrict its movements. Dead leprechauns convey teleportitis as usual. |
little dog | d | Your only choice of starting pet. Has three growth stages as in modern NetHack, and typically only appears in bones. |
lurker above | ' | |
mail daemon | 2 | if MAIL defined at compile time |
mimic | M | Disguises itself as items like usual, including "strange objects" (]). Eating dead mimics causes you to mimic a treasure chest for a while much like vanilla. |
minotaur | m | Got the small 'm' for some reason, but is still (presumably) a big deal. |
nurse | n | |
nymph | N | Same as the modern nymphs, though they just hit your pets rather than try to charm them, and probably do the same to you if you also have nothing to steal. |
orc | O | The quintessential horde monster. Try not to get overwhelmed, and aim to funnel them into hallways. Good source of spare projectiles and other such junk. |
owlbear | o | Growly McGrabsyou. Dead owlbear can be pretty filling. |
piercer | p | |
purple worm | P | |
quivering blob | q | A poison resistance source you'll want ASAP. |
rust monster | R | More like a disenchanter since erosion isn't a formal mechanic. Unless your weapon is rustproofed, you might want some wands or spare projectiles for them. |
rock mole | r | Very annoying - digs through walls and stuff as ever, but you still can't walk diagonally through the doorways this creates in rooms because "fuck you". Doesn't seem to eat gold at least. |
shopkeeper | @ | |
snake | S | |
stalker | I | |
tengu | t | |
trapper | , | |
troll | T | |
umber hulk | U | |
unicorn | u | Complete with horn and gem attraction. Your primary source of Luck. |
vampire | V | |
violet fungus | v | |
wizard of Yendor | 1 | |
wraith | W | The ghost who giveth levels and also taketh away. Eating a dead wraith raises your level as expected. |
xan | x | |
xorn | X | |
yellow light | y | |
yeti | Y | |
zombie | Z | Generic undead monster. Eating a dead zombie doesn't sicken you, amazingly, but it's not all that nutritious. |
zruty | z | |
Keystone Kop | K | if KOPS defined at compile time (default) |
kobold | K | if KOPS not defined at compile time |
quantum mechanic | Q | Teleport you with their attacks as usual. Their corpses are NOT poisonous, surprisingly, but give you teleportitis so you may wanna avoid them anyway unless you have tele control. |
giant spider | s | They move pretty fast and can actually hide under stuff. |
scorpion | s | if SPIDERS not defined at compile time |
long worm | w | if NOWORM not defined at compile time (default) |
wumpus | w | if NOWORM defined at compile time |
With Special Thanks
I would like to close this as-of-yet unfinished guide by giving a non-exhaustive shoutout to the following folks:
- Mike Stephenson, who released this first version of the game to Usenet and changed thousands of lives forever.
- Patric Mueller, who introduced this version to the Junethack tournament and by extension Hardfought.
- Keith Simpson, Hardfought owner and EvilHack dev whose work I thoroughly enjoy (and who I hope doesn't mind the full name here, haha)
- amateurhour, one of the few IRC users I know who took to playing 1.3d and is responsible for much of the strategy above.
- And you, for spending your time reading this, whoever the hell you are. <3
References
- ↑ In which case, hit me up @ Umbire on Discord or Libera.chat so we can collab if you like!
- ↑ Though, you might also want a quick win for speedplay purposes, personal achievement or bragging rights. No judgment, really.
- ↑ Or "KAA", if you've gone source diving here or in NetHack repos elsewhere.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Fun fact - if you do either of these commands (assuming you selected gold for "inventory by type") and have a significant amount of gold on you, you will physically sit to count your gold and use up multiple turns! Because
"fuck you"!there likely wasn't room to do anything that'd require another status line, and unfortunately for 1987 computers were... limited. So yeah - be careful doing this or you could die. - ↑ fountain.c in NetHack 1.3d, line 242