User interface

Dungeon features
Air	_ Altar
# Corridor	# Cloud
#. Drawbridge	+-| Door
. Doorway	{ Fountain
| Headstone	.  Floor
>< Ladder	. Ice
# Iron bars	} Lava
} Moat	# Sink
Solid rock	>< Staircase
\ Throne	^" Trap
# Tree	- | Wall
~ Vibrating square

NetHack's user interface is primarily ASCII. Graphical interfaces based on tiles are available for nearly all platforms, and some platforms have exotic interfaces such as Falcon's Eye, Vulture's Eye and glHack.

Even using only ASCII, the curses interface provides much of the convenience normally associated with windowing systems. It is available on the public server NAO.

A screenshot of the ASCII interface is below. Click on some parts to find out what they mean.

You see here a ruby ring.                                                       
                                                                                
                                                  ------------                  
                                                  +..........|     --------     
       -------------                            # |..........|     |.+*]@!|     
       |............#             ################...........|    #-.%[?f!|     
       |...........|#             #---------  #   ------|-----    #|.@[%))|     
       |>..........|#             #|.......|###         ########  #--------     
       -----.-----.-#             #|.[.....|#                  #  ####          
           ##       #             #|.......|#                  ###   #          
           #        #            ##-.....).|#                    #   #          
           #        #         #####|......)-#                    ##  #          
           #        ###  ------### ---------         -------------.--#          
           #          # #|....|#                     |..............|#          
 ----------.--        ###|....-#                     |...............#          
 |............###########.....|                      |..............|           
 |...........|          #|....|                      ----------------           
 |....<......+           |....|                                                 
 |...........|           ------                                                 
 -------------                                                                  
                                                                                
                                                                                
Snowy the Evoker          St:13 Dx:12 Co:12 In:18 Wi:11 Ch:10  Neutral          
Dlvl:2  $:94 HP:17(17) Pw:23(23) AC:9  Xp:2/25 T:707                            

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.