&

Printable ASCII characters
~	!	@	#	$	%	^	&	*	(	)	_	+	space
`	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	-	=	{	}	|
	Qq	Ww	Ee	Rr	Tt	Yy	Uu	Ii	Oo	Pp	:	"	[	]	\
	Aa	Ss	Dd	Ff	Gg	Hh	Jj	Kk	Ll	?	;	'	Ctrl
	Zz	Xx	Cc	Vv	Bb	Nn	Mm	,	.	/	<	>	Alt

In NetHack, the ampersand (&) serves the following purposes:

• & represents demons:
  • & water demon
  • & horned devil
  • & succubus
  • & incubus
  • & erinys
  • & barbed devil
  • & marilith
  • & vrock
  • & hezrou
  • & bone devil
  • & ice devil
  • & nalfeshnee
  • & pit fiend
  • & balrog
  • & Juiblex
  • & Yeenoghu
  • & Orcus
  • & Geryon
  • & Dispater
  • & Baalzebub
  • & Asmodeus
  • & Demogorgon
• & represents the endgame riders:
  • & Death
  • & Pestilence
  • & Famine
• & mail daemon
• & djinn
• & sandestins
• Pressing & followed by another command will output a message describing that latter command, e.g. & + h prints "h Go west 1 space (if number_pad is on, display help message)".

Historical uses

In Hack 1.21, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, the landshark uses the & glyph—in Hack for PDP-11 and Hack 1.0, the glyph is given to the demon, which uses the glyph from these releases on.

The demon monster class is introduced in NetHack 3.0.0 along with the distinct major demons, demon lords and demon princes—the demon continues to appear from this version to NetHack 3.0.10, where it is only generated if the HARD compile-time option (changed to INFERNO in NetHack 3.0.6) is not defined. NetHack 3.1.0 phases the demon monster out entirely.

Variants

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM introduces new monsters that use the & glyph:

• & major demon:
  • & spined devil
  • & bearded devil
  • & bar-lgura
  • & chasme
  • & babau
  • & nabassu
  • & Maugneshaagar

UnNetHack

UnNetHack introduces two new monsters that use the & glyph:

• & major demon:
  • & lava demon
  • & Durin's Bane