Fight

In, NetHack, the hero fights by attacking monsters.

Description

A hero can attack monsters in melee via one of two methods:

1. Moving into a hostile monster's known location, moving into a location where a monster was sensed (marked with I) or moving into any monster while wielding a bloodthirsty weapon (i.e. Stormbringer), will automatically perform an attack.
2. Using the fight command by pressing F (which is also known as force-fighting) and then pressing in one of eight directions will perform an attack towards the adjacent square in that direction.

Force-fighting will attack pets and peaceful monsters without confirmation, ignoring safe_pet option settings: for comparison, a hero not wielding a bloodthirsty weapon that moves into a non-hostile monster will either displace the monster (if it is a pet), or else be given a yes/no message prompt to confirm if they want to attack. Attacking with Cleaver and hitting a monster directly will strike in an arc that hits the squares to a 45-degree angle on each side of that monster in the attack's direction - this strike ignores the safety prompt for pets and peaceful monsters, and cannot occur by force-fighting at an empty square.

A leprechaun that dodges an attack from force-fighting will not cause the hero to move onto its former square.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

The hero can displace peaceful monsters in the same way as pets, with the same conditions.

Strategy

Force-fighting is generally employed in specific situations where directional control is insufficient, e.g. attacking a location where you know a concealed or invisible monster to be without wasting an action. This is also used to carefully direct attacks when the hero is hallucinating or blind, or else to use a wielded potion against a hostile monster (e.g. paralysis or sleeping) or even a tame one (e.g. to restore their HP with a potion of healing).

For heroes attempting to move onto a space attacking its occupant, using m before selecting a direction will safe-move in that direction.

Messages

You attack thin air.

You attacked a square that did not contain a monster by force-fighting.

Really attack <monster>?

You attempted to walk into a peaceful monster, triggering this yes/no prompt - "no" is the default answer.

Variants

EvilHack

In EvilHack, force-fighting suppresses the following additional attacks that can trigger automatically:

• The tentacle attack of illithids.
• The sting attack of crowned Infidels.
• The extra kick attack that Monks gain from reaching at least Master skill in martial arts.
• The shield bashes that any hero with Basic skill or higher in shields can perform.

Monks that force-fight in the direction of an adjacent boulder or statue with Skilled or higher in martial arts will shatter it.

Force-fighting to suppress extra attacks is useful to avoid destroying applicable armor as a result of passive disintegration, or else to avoid being displaced when fighting a monster with displacement.