Deferred and defunct features (dNetHack)

As a variant that has been continuously developed since the inception of its 3.5 version in roughly 2012, dNetHack has gone through countless revisions and feature implementations—these deferred and defunct features are listed below. For the sake of expedience, this article will also detail deferred and defunct features from notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, which are developed almost entirely downstream of dNetHack.

The dungeon

Echo and Synaisthesia were planned to be part of a third "challenge level" that could generate in the main dungeon on the same floor as Medusa's Island and the Grue's Cavern—both monsters are ultimately deferred due to problems with solidifying the level's design and translating the intended gimmick.

Quests and artifacts

Law Quest

In much older versions of the Law Quest, Apollyon serves as the overall "nemesis" of the branch, and defeating him will cause Lucifer to generate next to the hero upon entering the Astral Plane. Both monsters have since been deferred and have remained so for several versions.

Monsters

War is present in the game's code as a demon-class monster that is likely associated with the Riders and may have represented an entity separate from the hero, who is revealed to be War by specific pieces of dialogue within NetHack and most of its variants (naturally including dNetHack).

Spirits

The spirits that a hero can bind have undergone multiple revisions over the years, with only one that is currently defunct.

Fafnir is a spirit that existed in versions of dNetHack up to 3.24.0, as well as versions of notdNetHack and notnodNetHack derived from them. In version 3.25.0 of dNetHack, the 2026.01.16 revision (January 16th, 2026) of notdNetHack and the 2026.01.18 revision (January 18th, 2026) of notnotdNetHack, Fafnir is replaced by the spirit Maegera.

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