Minetown

Minetown
Location	Level 5–8 of the Gnomish Mines
Variants	Town Square Alley Town College Town Grotto Town Bustling Town Bazaar Town Orcish Town
Bones	Yes
Mappable	Yes
Teleportable	Yes
Diggable floor	Yes
Diggable walls	Yes

Minetown, or Mine Town, is a special level in NetHack that is located within the Gnomish Mines, and effectively marks the midway point of its dungeon branch.

Generation

Minetown is located on either the 3rd or 4th level of the Gnomish Mines, which gives the level a ¹⁄₆ chance each of occurring on dungeon level 5 or 8 in the branch and a ¹⁄₃ chance each of occurring on dungeon level 6 or 7. Like the rest of the Gnomish Mines branch, monster creation in Minetown is biased towards lawful monsters, and like most of the levels with the exception of Mines' End it is eligible to leave bones.

Maps

Minetown is generated with one of seven different maps, each of which may be flipped horizontally and/or vertically—the maps below are presented as they appear in the code, with the assumption that no flipping of any type is applied during level generation. Additionally, as with other levels in the Gnomish Mines, a dwarven or gnomish hero will have two-thirds of the peaceful monsters (usually the dwarves and gnomes) that are normally placed on the level replaced by random and often-hostile monsters.

Minetown often has a collection of shops, a temple and some fountains (which are always non-magical in nature), though depending on the map that generates none of the shops are guaranteed to appear—each other map described in the sub-sections below will have a listing of the odds of each individual shop being generated. Minetown is also home to the Watch, composed of several watchmen and one or two watch captains depending on the map: they are always generated as peaceful, but can be angered through a number of actions such as attacking peacefuls, digging through walls, trying to break open doors or pick their locks, or stealing from any of the shopkeepers. Finally, there is usually a temple present, containing an altar and attendant aligned cleric.

One map in particular, known as Orcish Town, will not have any of the aforementioned features or monsters as a result of being ransacked by several orcs, and its section in this article details the many ways in which it differs from the other Minetown maps.

Town Square

 ---------------------------------
 |.+..|..|..+....+..|..|..|G.+...|
 |.+..|..|..+....+..|..|..|..+...|
 |.----++----....----++-++----...|
 |...............................|
 |.-++----++-.......-++++-+++-...|
 |.|..|..|..|......{|.GG.|...|...|
 |.|..|..|.G|.......|....|...|...|
 |.----++----.......|.@_.|foo|...|
 |.............{....|....|...|...|
 |.------+++------.----------|...|
 |.+....|...|....+.+....|....+...|
 |.+.gen|.G.|lght+.+.G..|tool+...|
 |.+....|...|....+.+....|....+...|
 |.---------------.-----------...|
 |...............................|
 ---------------------------------

The Town Square map is set in the middle of the level, surrounded by a standard "rooms and corridors"-style map with four separate rooms: one of these rooms will contain the up stair; a second will contain two gnomes along with the down stair and a random trap; a third will contain a dwarf; and the last will contain a third gnome and another random trap. Four watchmen and a watch captain are placed randomly across the entirety of the level.

The temple and Izchak's lighting shop (marked "lght") are guaranteed to appear—while the rooms containing the food store ("foo"), general shop ("gen") and hardware store ("tool") are also guaranteed, the shops themselves each have an independent ⁹⁄₁₀ chance (90%) of actually generating, and will be empty normal rooms otherwise. A Monk hero that encounters a food store on this map will find a health food shop, while all other heroes will encounter delicatessens. All of the other rooms shown have a ³⁄₄ chance (75%) of being placed, including any monsters dwelling within those rooms—if they are generated, the walls marked with + will have a door placed on one of the marked squares, with the remainder of them being normal wall squares.

Below is a table listing all of the monsters placed during level creation:

Monster	Symbol	Location
The Watch	@ x 4 @	Patrolling randomly
Cleric	@	In temple
Gnomish wizards	G x 2	In temple
Gnomes	G (3-6)	In rooms marked with G, outside mapped area
Gnome lord	G (0-1)	In room opposite light shop
Dwarf	h	Outside mapped area

Alley Town

 ---------------------------------
 |...............................|
 |.----....-----.----+--..-----..|
 |.|..|---.|.@.+.+..|..|..|...|..|
 |.|..|..|.|._.+.+..|..|..|lgt|..|
 |.-++|tl|.|.GG+.--------.|...|..|
 |....|..|.|...+....+...|.-+++-..|
 |.{..-++-.----|....+wan|........|
 |..........+..|++-.-----..-----.|
 |....-++-..+..|..|........+...|.|
 |.-++|..|.----|G.|+++-....+foo|.|
 |.|..|..|.+...|--|...|---.-----.|
 |.|..|---.+gen|..|too|..+.......|
 |.|.G|....+...|..|...|G.+.......|
 |.----....-----+---------.....{.|
 |...............................|
 ---------------------------------

The Alley Town map is set in the middle of the level, surrounded by a standard "rooms and corridors"-style map with four separate rooms: one of these rooms will contain the up stair; a second will contain two gnomes (G) along with the down stair and a random trap; a third will contain a dwarf (h); and the last will contain a third gnome and another random trap. Four watchmen and a watch captain are placed randomly across the entirety of the level.

The temple, general shop and Izchak's lighting shop (marked "lgt") are guaranteed to appear. While the rooms containing the other marked shops are also guaranteed, they each have an independent chance of the shop actually being placed during level generation, and will be empty normal rooms otherwise: there is a ³⁄₁₀ chance (30%) of the northwestern hardware store ("tl") being placed; a ²⁄₅ chance (40%) of the southern hardware store ("too") being placed; a ⁹⁄₁₀ chance (90%) of the food shop ("foo") being placed; and a ³⁄₁₀ chance (30%) of the quality apparel and accessories shop ("wan") being placed. A Monk hero that encounters a food store on this map will find a health food shop, while all other heroes will encounter delicatessens. The walls marked with + will have a door placed on one of the marked squares, with the remainder of them being normal wall squares.

Below is a table listing all of the monsters placed during level creation:

Monster	Symbol	Location
The Watch	@ x 4 @	Patrolling randomly
Cleric	@	In temple
Gnomish wizards	G x 2	In temple
Gnomes	G x 3	Outside mapped area
Gnome monsters	G x 3	In rooms marked with G
Dwarf	h	Outside mapped area

College Town

 --------------------------------
 |..............................|
 |...--------.......-----------.|
 |...|...|..|------.|.G|...|G.+.|
 |...|boo|..|.....|.|..|lgt|..+.|
 |...|...|++|.._@.|.-++|...|---.|
 |...-+++-..|..GG.|....-+++-....|
 |..........|.....|.............|
 |........{.-+++++-.{...........|
 |..............................|
 |...-+++-...........-++-+++-...|
 |...|...|-------.---|..|...|...|
 |...|too|kk|foo+.+..|.G|gen|...|
 |...|...|ff|...+.+..|--|...|...|
 |...-----++-----.----..-----...|
 |..............................|
 --------------------------------

The College Town map is set in the middle of the level, surrounded by a standard "rooms and corridors"-style map with four separate rooms: one of these rooms will contain the up stair; a second will contain two gnomes (G) along with the down stair and a random trap; a third will contain a dwarf (h); and the last will contain a third gnome and another random trap. Four watchmen and a watch captain are placed randomly across the entirety of the level.

The temple, rare books store and Izchak's candle shop (marked "lgt") are guaranteed to appear: the rooms containing the marked hardware store ("too"), food store ("foo") and general shop ("gen") are also guaranteed, but the shops each have an independent ⁹⁄₁₀ chance (90%) of actually being placed during level generation, and will be empty normal rooms otherwise. A Monk hero that encounters a food store on this map will find a health food shop, while all other heroes will encounter delicatessens. The walls marked with + will have a door placed on one of the marked squares, with the remainder of them being normal wall squares.

Below is a table listing all of the monsters placed during level creation:

Monster	Symbol	Location
The Watch	@ x 4 @	Patrolling randomly
Cleric	@	In temple
Gnomish wizards	G x 2	In temple
Kobold shamans	k	In southwest room
Kitten	f	In southwest room
Feline	f	In southwest room
Gnomes	G x 3	Outside mapped area
Gnome monsters	G x 3	In rooms marked with G
Dwarf	h	Outside mapped area

Grotto Town

 -----         ---------                                                    
 |<..---  ------.......--    -------                       ---------------  
 |.....---|.........--..|    |.....|          -------      |.............|  
 --..|....|.---------|..|    |.._..|          |>...(|     --+---+--.----+|  
  --.|-.....----     -CC-    |.....|  ------  --....----  |..|...|-.|.+..|  
   --|.........|---  -CC--   ---+---  |..+.|--D---..-..---|..|--+-..--|..|  
     ----.|....|..----...--    |.|    |..|.DDDDDD--+-.....-+--........--+|  
        -----..|....|.....---- |.|    |G.|.------......--................|  
     ------ |..|..........A..---.--   ---|.+..||.......-|..--------+--..--  
     |food| --.c....---...A.......-----  |.|..||...{....|--|.........|..--  
     |....|  |.c......|...|..........B---|.|..|--.......|  |.general.|...|  
     ---+--------....-------...---...B..-|.|------....--|  -----------EEE|  
  ------.---...-|...-|..|..|-...|..---...|.--..|...|....------- |.......--  
  |..|-.........|aa--|..|..|--.....|-....|.....d..---...-|....| |.-------   
  |..+...............-+---+-----..-|..........--....|-...+tool| |.|.G.S=    
 -----.....{....----.............bb|...G.......|-...|...-|....| |.|...|     
 |..............-- |-+--.---------.........--..|........|------ |.--+-------
 |+-----.........| |...|.|....|  --.......-----|...|....|--------.....|....|
 |.G.| --..------- |.G.|.+lght|   ---...---    --..|...--......|...{..+..-+|
 |...|  ----       ------|....|     -----       -----.....----........|.G|(|
 -----                   ------                     -------  ---------------

The Grotto Town map takes up the entirety of the dungeon level, and is partially randomized as shown with the colored letters above:

• For each pair of Aa and Bb, there is a ³⁄₄ chance (75%) that one set of marked squares is replaced by walls, with an equal probability for each letter.
• For each set of Cc and Dd, one set of marked squares is always replaced by walls, with an equal probability for each letter.
• For each of E, there is a ¹⁄₂ chance (50%) that one set of marked squares is replaced by walls, with an equal probability for each letter.

Most of the level is also unlit, with several lit areas populating it—the temple, all of the shops, the areas surrounding each fountain, the area surrounding the historic statue of a gnome king (marked by G), and the area north of the general shop are all lit. Unlike some of the other Minetown maps, all of the rooms and shops in Grotto town are guaranteed to be placed: the shops themselves consist of Izchak's lighting shop ("lght"), a general shop, a hardware store ("tool"), and a food store at the marked locations—for the lattermost shop, a Monk hero will have a health food shop while all other heroes will encounter delicatessens. The locked closet in the bottom right corner contains a chest with typical random contents, while the room immediately northwest has a secret closet with a random ring, and the locked down stair room contains a random tool.

Four watchmen and a watch captain are placed randomly across the entirety of the level, along with three dwarves, two gnome lords, and six gnomes. Two gnomish wizards, two gnome monsters and a gnome lord are placed at the marked locations. Below is a table listing all of the monsters placed during level creation:

Monster	Symbol	Location
The Watch	@ x 4 @	Patrolling randomly
Cleric	@	In temple
Gnomes	G x 6	Random
Gnome lords	G x 3	Random (2), larger southeast room
Dwarves	h x 3	Random
Gnomish wizards	G x 2	In far southwest room/In front of secret door
Gnome monsters	G x 2	Opposite light shop/In room at top of central corridor

Bustling Town

 -----................----------------.-
 |...|................|...|..|...|...|..
 |...+..--+--.........|gen|..|...|...|..
 |...|..|...|..-----..|...|..|-+---+--..
 -----..|...|--|...|..--+---+-.........-
 .......|...|.G|too+.............-----..
 .......|---|.G|...|......--+-...|...|..
 ----...|...|+------..{...|..|...+...|..
 |..+...|lgt|.............|G.|...|...|..
 |..|...|...|-+-.....---+-------------.-
 ----...--+-|..|..-+-|..................
 ..|........|..|..|..|----....---------.
 ..|..#.....----..|..|...+....|......||.
 ..|-....{........|..|foo|....+...@_.||.
 ..--..|....#.....--------....|......||.
 ......|-.....................----------

The Bustling Town map is placed within an open and lit cavern level somewhat similar to the other floors of the Gnomish Mines (minus Mines' End), and it covers the maximum height possible for a dungeon map in order to prevent any inaccessible areas from being created. The up stair is situated to the left of the town while the down stair is placed to the right, and each stair can generate 1 column inside the map in case the generated cavern area does not extend far enough outside of it. The shops are all guaranteed and consist of Izchak's lighting shop ("lgt"), a general shop ("gen"), a hardware store ("too"), and a food store ("foo") at the marked locations: for the food shop, a Monk hero will have a health food shop, while all other heroes will encounter delicatessens.

There are two trees, two fountains, the temple, a 2x3 room, and several 2x2 and 3x3 rooms—the 2x2 room between the lighting shop and hardware store is unlit. Two gnomes and a gnome lord are placed at the marked locations, while three watchmen and two watch captains are placed randomly across the entirety of the level along with five dwarves (including two peaceful ones), two gnome lords, eight gnomes (including two peaceful ones), a peaceful hobbit, a peaceful goblin, a peaceful kobold, and a peaceful dog.

Below is a table listing all of the monsters placed during level creation:

Monster	Symbol	Location
The Watch	@ x 3 @ x 2	Patrolling randomly
Cleric	@	In temple
Gnomes	G x 10	Random (8, 2 peaceful) In room between light and tool shops In room east of fountain
Gnome lords	G x 3	Random (2) In room between light and tool shops
Dwarves	h x5	Random (2 peaceful)
Hobbit	h	Random, peaceful
Goblin	o	Random, peaceful
Kobold	k	Random, peaceful
Dog	d	Random, peaceful

Bazaar Town

 --------------------------------
 |..............................|
 |.------++-------------..-----.|
 |.|....|..|...|....|..+..+...|.|
 |.|....|..|YYY|.n..|G.+..+too|.|
 |.-++++---|.G.|+------|..+...|.|
 |......|..|...|.|..|..|.-----|.|
 |.----.|..|+++-.|..|fd|.+....|.|
 |.|..+.-++-..{..-++|..|.+.@_.|.|
 |.|..+.............-++-.+GG..|.|
 |.|---+++-.----++-......+....|.|
 |.|..|...|.+G.|..|++++-------|.|
 |.|tl|lgt|.+..|gn|....|#.|fd.+.|
 |.|..|...|.---|..|....|..|...+.|
 |.-++-----..{.---------++-----.|
 |..............................|
 --------------------------------

The Bazaar Town map is set in the middle of the level, surrounded by a standard "rooms and corridors"-style map with four separate rooms: one of these rooms will contain the up stair; a second will contain two gnomes (G) along with the down stair and a random trap; a third will contain a dwarf (h); and the last will contain a third gnome and another random trap. Four watchmen and a watch captain are placed randomly across the entirety of the level, along with a gnome lord, two monkeys and three gnomes.

The temple and Izchak's lighting shop (marked "lght") are guaranteed to appear. While the rooms containing the food stores ("fd"), general shop ("gn") and hardware stores ("tl" and "too") are also guaranteed, the shops themselves each have an independent chance of actually generating, and will be empty normal rooms otherwise: the two food stores each have a ¹⁄₂ chance (50%) of being placed; the southwest hardware store has a ¹⁄₂ chance (50%) of being placed; the general shop has a ³⁄₅ chance (60%) of being placed; and the northeast hardware store has a ³⁄₁₀ chance (30%) of being placed. A Monk hero that encounters food stores on this map will find health food shops, while all other heroes will encounter delicatessens. All of the other rooms shown have a ³⁄₄ chance (75%) of being placed, including any monsters dwelling within those rooms—if they are generated, the walls marked with + will have a door placed on one of the marked squares, with the remainder of them being normal wall squares.

Below is a table listing all of the monsters placed during level creation:

Monster	Symbol	Location
The Watch	@ x 4 @	Patrolling randomly
Cleric	@	In temple
Gnomish wizards	G x 2	In temple
Gnomes	G x 7	Random (3) Outside mapped area (3) In room north of central fountain
Gnome lord	G	Random
Monkeys	Y x 5	Random (2) In room north of central fountain (3)
Nymph	Random n	In marked room next to the monkey room
Gnome king	G	In marked room
Gnome monster	G	In room north of lower fountain
Dwarf	h	Outside mapped area

Orcish Town

.....................................
.----------------#------------------.
.|.................................|.
.|.-------------......------------.|.
.|.|.%.|...|.%.|......|..|%..|...|.|.
.#.|...|.%.|...|......+..|...|.%.|.|.
.|.|...|...|...|......|..|...|...|.#.
.|.|...|...|-+--......-----+---+--.|.
.|.--+---+--.......................|.
.|..............{.......{..........|.
.|.--+---+--.....--...--...........|.
.|.|...|...|----.|.....|.------+--.|.
.|.|...|...|...|.|..%..|.|..|....|.|.
.|.|...|..%|...+.|.._..|.+.%|....|.|.
.|.|.%.|...|...|.|.....|.|%.|.%..|.|.
.|.-------------.-------.---------.|.
.|.................................#.
.-----------#------------#----------.
.....................................

Orcish Town–sometimes known simply as Orc Town or Orctown (not to be confused with Orcus-Town)–is a version of Minetown that has been ransacked and looted by orcs, based on the Frontier Town map from older versions of NetHack. The map for Orcish Town is set in the middle of a fully-walled cavern level that is somewhat similar to the other floors of the Gnomish Mines (minus Mines' End), with the up stair at the far western end of the level and the down stair at the far east. The whole area is swarming with orcs, and the lit town area is barricaded with iron bars. The map's regions are partitioned so that the hero cannot be accidentally dropped or relocated inside the walled-off town, e.g. by falling through a hole or trap door on a higher floor, or through level teleportation.

Within the "town" itself, there are two fountains next to each corner of the temple; the temple is desecrated and abandoned, with the altar being unaligned (i.e. an altar to Moloch); and the marked walls between the locations of the former shops have a chance of being knocked down, with a ¹⁄₃ chance (33%) for the wall between the northeastern-most rooms and a ⁹⁄₅₀ chance (18%) for the others. The shop doors will each randomly be open, closed, locked, or broken down.

The Minetown watch, shopkeepers and temple cleric have all been killed and their corpses are left strewn around the leve, with five shopkeeper corpses placed at any of the marked locations (though only four shops are present in the original Frontier Town), and none of the other usual inhabitants are present. 10-19 piles of debris are randomly placed throughout the level, with a ⁹⁄₁₀ chance that the "pile" is a boulder and otherwise being a stack of rocks. Several of the shopkeepers' personal inventory and the stock of Izchak's lighting shop are scattered among the squares of the shopkeeper corpses: this consists of 4-8 wax candles, 3-7 tallow candles, 2 empty wands of striking, 3 empty wands of magic missile, and a single oil lamp—the shopkeeper's corpse the oil lamp is found on is implied by a comment to belong to Izchak himself.

Various hostile orcish monsters are scattered across the level, and all of them are given randomly generated names: an individual name which is different for each orc, and a clan name which is the same for all of the orcs in the town. 10-19 orcish monsters are placed randomly throughout the entire level inside and/or outside of the barricaded walls, with a ⁹⁄₁₀ chance of each monster being a hill orc and otherwise being a goblin. Inside the barricaded area, 5-15 other orcish monsters are placed randomly across the "town", and there is a ¹⁄₂ chance of each monster being an orc-captain, an effective ²⁄₅ chance (40%) of them being an Uruk-hai, or a ¹⁄₁₀ chance (10%) of being a Mordor orc. 1-6 orc shamans are placed inside and/or around the temple, with one of the orc shamans in the group having a higher level than the others.

The table below tallies all of the corpses and monsters placed during level generation:

Monster/Corpse	Symbol	Location
Corpses of the Watch	% x 4 %	Random
Cleric corpse	%	In temple, on marked square north of altar
Shopkeeper corpses	% x 5	On all other marked squares
Stronger orcs	o / o / o (6-15)	Randomly inside the town walls
Orc shamans	o (1-6)	Near or inside the temple
Weaker orcs	o / o (10-19)	Random

The occurrence of Orcish Town also affects the rest of the Gnomish Mines as well: several orcs that are part of the raiding clans can be encountered on other levels within the Gnomish Mines and outside it—an orc-captain bearing the name of a different orcish clan from the ones in Minetown will appear towards the lowest levels of the Mines, with a ¹⁄₄₀ chance of the clan leader being on the level above Mines' End. Additionally, a named orcish monster that is christened "the Fence" will sometimes generate in the main branch near the entrance to the Gnomish Mines.

All of these orcs are generated carrying extra loot taken from the ransacked town, which consists of: piles of gold, gems, and shiny rings; four candles (with a ³⁄₄ chance of each being tallow and otherwise being wax); three skeleton keys; a random pair of gloves; ten random comestibles that are not tins, eggs or corpses; and the watch captain's weapon, which has a roughly equal probability of being a long sword or silver saber. The named orc-captain will always have a shiny ring, and will also possess any of the remaining loot that has not been distributed among the other orcs outside of Orcish Town. The food distributed among the other orcs may include nameable fruits that are each called "paddle cactus" or "dwarven root" (with equal probability).

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"Explore and explain the role and item generation of the Fence—the files pager.c and dokick.c contain some of the relevant information not found in mkmaze.c with the other details of the orcish army."

The Watch

While the members of the Minetown Watch (or simply "the watch") are usually generated peaceful, they can become hostile through a number of player actions. All watchmen and watch captains on the current level will become hostile and try to kill the hero if they perform any of the following actions:

• Attacking any peaceful monster in sight of the watchman, including another peaceful watchman (unless the attack kills them in a single hit), the temple's aligned cleric, or a peaceful shopkeeper.
• Stealing from shops, intentionally or otherwise.
• Destroying or drying up fountains.
• Digging instantly through walls and/or razing doors by means such as a wand of digging or the dig spell.
• Applying a bugle, which will anger the watch and all other mercenaries on the level.

The following actions will be interrupted if a watchman sees the hero and will result in them giving a verbal warning (with some exceptions), followed by the entire Watch becoming hostile if the hero immediately resumes that action:

• Kicking trees or chopping them down by applying an axe weapon.
• Digging through walls or doors with a pick-axe.
• Dipping into or quaffing from a fountain—this is also signaled by the fountain's flow "reducing to a trickle", even if a watchman is not in sight.
  • However, if you dip for Excalibur and successfully receive it, the fountain will dry up without warning, and the watch will become hostile whether or not they are in sight.
• Kicking a door and not destroying it will incur a warning—a kick that successfully destroys it will immediately anger the watch.
• Spending multiple turns locking or unlocking doors.
  • The watch will only object if the action takes more than one turn, which is more likely to happen with a lock pick for Rogues and a skeleton key for other roles.
  • Attempting to unlock the door again immediately after a warning will cause them to turn hostile, and unlocking a trapped door will give no warning. However, attempting to untrap the door instead will not turn the watch hostile, even if the trap is set off.
• Note that being warned for tampering with doors causes the door to become trapped as well—NetHack stores the data for "the player has been warned about this door" and "this door is booby trapped" in the same piece of memory, which is noted within the code.

If the hero has angered a shopkeeper, pacifying them will also pacify the Watch even if they were angered by other means not involving that shopkeeper.

See the main article's strategy sections for information on getting the watch out of the way or killing them for profit.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"Consider moving the information on the Watch's mechanics to this article or its own article, while also possibly splitting the monsters to their own articles."

Strategy

Minetown's high likelihood of having a temple and shops makes it an ideal early goal to pursue for most heroes once they become capable of handling combat in the Gnomish Mines. The shops can provide useful items, a venue to sell off items for gold and/or a place to perform price identification if there are no such shops conveniently available in the main branch, and the temple offers a chance to buy valuable protection and discover the beatitude of items (unless you are a Cleric and thus know them innately). The temple also has a ¹⁄₃ chance of being co-aligned, providing sanctuary and a place to sacrifice for luck and artifacts: if you run into a cross-aligned temple, it is possible to trap the cleric and convert the altar, but doing so is incredibly risky and will anger that cleric and the altar's god if you are successful, and clerics are capable of breaking boulders that are used to stop their movements even when they are not hostile.

For shoppers, general stores are the easiest to use for price identification, and though you can get price quotes from throwing items into other shops, re-buying those items or using a pet to 'steal' them back is often tedious and may require credit cloning to offset some of your losses. The food and tool shops are among the most important shops to find in order to stock up on permafood (especially for Monks and other dietary-restricted heroes) and obtain cheap useful items such as containers, lamps and the various unlocking tools. Izchak's lighting store can provide a means of informally identifying items like the potion of oil, wand of light and scroll of light, and especially fortunate players might be able to buy one or more magic lamps from the lighting and tool shops.

For players seeking armor and weapons that are not satisfied with their shops, pets can be used to pick off weaker watchmen for their gloves and other armor, and even the watch captain can be killed with a combination of stronger pets and regular support from your healing spells. While it is possible to lure watch members off-level and kill them directly without angering the rest of the watch, you will still have to contend with major hits to your alignment record and significant alignment abuse, as well as murder penalties unless you are chaotic. Mass angering of the watch also makes it a Bad Idea to dip for Excalibur using the town's fountains if any of them are present.

Finally, Minetown can provide a convenient location for you to stash items when heading to or returning from Mines' End, and has a decent chance of providing some means to make stashing easier (e.g. chests and large boxes) and/or make your current inventory safer to carry (e.g. the three item-storing bags). But do not take the presence of shops in Minetown for granted! Even without running into Orcish Town, many of stores on each of the other maps are not guaranteed: it is unlikely, but still very possible, to have a Minetown where only Izchak's shop is set up. Additionally, the frequency of players setting up a "base" in Minetown naturally means that many of them will end up dying on or near the level, and an unfortunate player discovering those bones can happen upon plenty of unwanted surprises and/or lost resources—if you can survive whatever killed the previous hero, however, the former character's inventory can potentially make up for the trouble and then some.

Orcish Town options

The absence of many of these conveniences makes Orcish Town unattractive to most players at a first glance, and the sight of iron bars is often devastating to many a Healer or Tourist looking for safety and/or services to purchase. This is further compounded by the requirement of a digging tool or a means of breaching the iron bars to enter the barricaded town—furthermore, many of the orcs will be carrying poisoned orcish arrows that can inflict severe damage and will try to shoot them through the bars, making poison resistance highly recommended if the hero plans to advance below the level or clear out the army within the walls. However, skilled and wise players that plan out their approach to breaking into the looted town, and are capable of dealing with the substantial amount of combat, can still reap substantial rewards of a sort:

• Entering the barricade itself requires a means of digging through the walls or breaking iron bars. You are fairly likely to encounter a digging tool within the Mines, whether it is on the ground, taken from a hostile dwarf or "liberated" from a peaceful one using the hero's pet. Even if none of these are available, there is a chance that a rock mole, rust monster or similar monster appears, and will either break through the walls/bars themselves or can be manipulated into doing so.
• Orcs are much slower in base speed than the average hero, with the hill orc being the fastest at a base speed of 9—even if you do not have intrinsic speed, you can leverage the corridors of Minetown and/or strategically breach the walls in order to funnel the orcs into easier-to-manage rows and columns. Earlier encounters with hill orc groups can provide a useful springboard to practice for this situation.
• As mentioned above, poison resistance can render the flurry of arrows from Uruk-hai and orc-captains much less threatening—Barbarians and orcish heroes in particular are often well-positioned to benefit from a careful Orc Town break-in. Although every type of orc other than goblins and hobgoblins have poison resistance as well, it can still be worth leveraging the mentioned group management tactics so that the orcs shoot each other more often than they do you.
• Successfully converting the altar in the abandoned temple can provide a means of amassing a decent amount of luck and some valuable artifact weapons, if you can lure the orcs into the temple and kill them close to the altar (as their corpses are on the heavier side). Ironically, orcish heroes are actually in a less ideal position compared to heroes of other races: same-race sacrifice on an unaligned altar cannot convert the altar and will lower the hero's luck, requiring that they use the fresh-enough corpses of other monsters to convert it first.
• With no watch present, you can freely use the two fountains for various purposes as long as they last, though you must still be mindful of other threats such as water nymphs, water moccasins and even water demons.
• You can usually make an improvised stash from a "fort" of nearby boulders, and even moving a boulder onto a square where the stash is piled can suffice. Players can also informally identify wands of striking and magic missile if they have not done so already.
• The leftover loot can be still quite useful, as there will always have light sources for dark levels in the Mines and elsewhere in the dungeon, and the guaranteed candles in particular will always be the minimum amount required for the Candelabrum of Invocation further down the line (assuming you survive that far). You can also retrieve the loot from the other orcs elsewhere in the Mines to stock up on food and possibly obtain a decent weapon along with some gloves—as a much smaller 'comfort', you will also not have to worry about a lack of gold.

History

Minetown first appears in NetHack 3.1.0, where it has a single map known as Frontier Town that serves as the basis for the Orcish Town map in later versions:

 ---------------------------------
 |...............................|
 |.------------.....------------.|
 |.|...|...|..|.....+..|...|...|.|
 |.|...|...|fd|.....+GG|lgt|.G.|.|
 |.|gen|...|..|.....+..|...|...|.|
 |.|...|...|++-.....----+++-+++-.|
 |.-+++-+++-.....................|
 |.............{......{..........|
 |.-+++-+++-....-++++-...........|
 |.|...|...|---.|.GG.|.----++++-.|
 |.|...|...|..+.|....|.+..|....|.|
 |.|too|...|.G+.|.@_.|.+..|....|.|
 |.|...|...|..+.|....|.+..|....|.|
 |.------------.------.---------.|
 |...............................|
 ---------------------------------

The Frontier Town map is set in the middle of the level, surrounded by a standard "rooms and corridors"-style map with four separate rooms: one of these rooms will contain the up stair; a second will contain two gnomes (G) along with the down stair and a random trap; a third will contain a dwarf (h); and the last will contain a third gnome and another random trap. Four watchmen and a watch captain are placed randomly across the entirety of the level.

The temple and Izchak's lighting shop (marked "lgt") are guaranteed to appear—while the rooms containing the food store ("fd"), general shop ("gen") and hardware store ("too") are also guaranteed, the shops themselves each have an independent ⁹⁄₁₀ chance (90%) of actually generating, and will be empty normal rooms otherwise. The walls marked with + will have a door placed on one of the marked squares, with the remainder of them being normal wall squares.

Below is a table listing all of the monsters placed during level creation:

Monster	Symbol	Location
The Watch	@ x 4 @	Patrolling randomly
Priest	@	In temple
Gnomish wizards	G x 2	In temple
Gnomes	G x 6	Placed in rooms on marked G, outside mapped area
Gnome lord	G	In room east of light shop
Dwarf	h	Outside mapped area

NetHack 3.2.0 introduces the Town Square map, which remains the second and only other map for Minetown until NetHack 3.3.1: NetHack 3.4.0 introduces the other five maps, and all seven are retained through versions up to NetHack 3.4.3—in these versions and variants based on them, Grotto Town does not have randomized wall formations. The guarantee of a temple in Minetown makes protection rackets a popular strategy to attempt in order to score a significant amount of early slotless AC.

NetHack 3.6.0 establishes the current behavior for wall placement in Grotto Town and replaces the Frontier Town map with Orcish Town, which is imported from SporkHack and introduces a further element of risk to the protection racket strategy. In this version and NetHack 3.6.1, orcish monsters (including orc zombies) can be given clan names and plundered loot even if they are generated far away from the Gnomish Mines—this is fixed in NetHack 3.6.2.

NetHack 5.0.0 enables the horizontal and vertical flipping of certain level maps, and adds random peaceful monsters to Bustling Town via commit 3877e142.

Variants

Many NetHack variants add new maps for Minetown: variants based on NetHack 3.4.3 and older versions may retain all the available maps for Minetown from those versions and iterate from that set of maps, while variants based on versions between those and NetHack 5.0.0 may retain Orcish Town in place of Frontier Town when doing the same. Other variants may opt to (re-)add the Frontier Town or Orcish Town maps to their existing map pool.

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM uses the same base set of maps for Minetown as NetHack 3.4.3 and older contemporary versions.

SporkHack

SporkHack adds two maps for Minetown that replaces the Frontier and Bustling Town maps from NetHack 3.4.3, while retaining all other maps from that version:

• The first map is Orcish Town, which makes its debut in this variant.
• The second is highly similar to Bustling Town, but adds an undiggable "zoo" room with a tiger, panther, jaguar, mastodon, and two bullwhip-equipped Mordor orcs (who act as "animal handlers")—the room also has two random wands and a random ring.

Though not formally named in SporkHack, other variants that adapt the latter map refer to it as "Zoo Town".

UnNetHack

UnNetHack retains the Frontier Town map for Minetown from NetHack 3.4.3 and adds the Orcish Town map from SporkHack, and each map may be flipped horizontally and/or vertically.

FIQHack

FIQHack retains all of the maps for Minetown that are used in NetHack 3.4.3, and the level will always contain a magic chest: Grotto Town and Bustling Town place it on a specific square, while the other maps place it in a specific room that is guaranteed to be generated.

xNetHack

xNetHack re-adds the Frontier Town map to the list of possible maps for Minetown alongside Orcish Town, and makes some significant changes to the Orcish Town map:

• Izchak is alive and still running his lighting shop, which he has locked and managed to barricade with a set of boulders.
• Three shopkeeper corpses are placed across the town area, with one removed so that it matches the amount of shopkeepers normally in Frontier Town, and each of those corpses have the former shopkeeper's personal inventory along with a boulder placed on top of them.
• The food and tools from the other shops in Frontier Town's map are spread across the level as well.
• The aligned cleric's corpse has a stack of random spellbooks placed on its square.

SpliceHack

SpliceHack includes a modified version of SporkHack's Zoo Town. SpliceHack also adds a new "spooky" Minetown layout called "Lavender Town".

Lavender Town

.......................................
.-------------------------------------.
.|...................................|.
.|.------....------..-------------+-.|.
.|.|....+....|....|..+lgt|.........|.|.
.|.|food|..{.|....|..|...|.........|.|.
.|.|....|....|....|..--------------|.|.
.|.|....|....+....|......|.general |.|.
...------....------......+.........|...
.........................-----------...
.|...................................|.
.|................--+--..............|.
.|................|...|..............|.
.|------+-+---....+._.+...-----------|.
.|.......|...|....|...|...+..........|.
.|.......|tl.|....--+--...|graveyard.|.
.|.......|...|............|..........|.
.-------------------------------------.
.......................................

The town contains a food store (marked "food"), a tool shop (marked "tl"), a general store (marked "general") and Izchak's lighting store (marked "lgt"). There is also a graveyard and temple. In addition to the regular Minetown inhabitants, many undead creatures roam the level. Some of the undead are peaceful.

The mapped portion of the level is dark, except for the stores and altars.

Monster	Symbol	Location
The Watch	@@@@	Patrolling randomly
Priest	@	In temple
Gnomish Wizards	GGG
Gnome	G
Gnome ruler	G
Dwarf	h
Dwarf zombies	ZZZ
Gnome zombies	ZZ
Ghosts
Human zombie	Z	In health food store
Peaceful Ghoul	Z
Skeleton	Z	In graveyard
Zombies	ZZ	In graveyard

EvilHack

EvilHack includes a modified version of SporkHack's Zoo Town.

Slash'THEM

SlashTHEM includes Frontier Town, Zoo Town (like Bustling Town, but with felines and whips), and three other variants:

Mini-Castle

         9          |         |      36
----...}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}.--.---
--.....}---------------------}..-..--
-.----.}|........|.....|..|.|}......-
..|fo|.}|.-----..|.._..S.#|.|}.......
..|od|.}|.|ca.|..|.....|..|.|}.......
..|..|.}|.|nd.+..---+------.|}.......
..--+-.}|.|le.|.............|}......-
.......}|.-----..#@..{...#..|}......-  7
..{....##....@.........@....##.......
.......}|.--+--.-----.-----.|}.......
.......}|.|...--|to.|.|.sh|.|}....... 10
.......}|.|G..S.|ol.+.+.op|.|}.......
..-....}|.|GG.|Z|...|.|...|.|}.-+--..
---....}|.-----------.-----.|}.|OO|..
-......}|...................|}.|.O0.-
--..-..}---------------------}......-
------.}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}..----- 16

This version is surrounded by a moat with two lowered drawbridges; the enclosed structure is undiggable. It contains a temple and a general, tool, and lighting store; on the far side there is also a food shop and an additional watchman on the fountain. On the near side is a locked half-room with 3 sleeping ogres. The upstairs are to the right, the downstairs to the left.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"temple: align[1], priest?"

There is a (secret) locked door leading from the temple to a room with a sink and 2 gnomish wizards. The room in the lower left is also locked and contains 2 gnomes and a gnome lord; it leads to a (locked) dark alcove with a skeleton inside.

Wandering around this level are a gnome, gnome lord, dwarf lord, and dwarf.

The watch captain is asleep.

Creek Town

                ----            ---         |}}}|                 ---       
                |..----         |.-----  ----}}}|                --.--  --- 
     ----  ---- |.....----------|.....-- |..}}}--                |...----.--
 ----|..|  |..|------..................---.}}}--        ---      --...||...|
 |...+..----..|.....|---...................}}.| ---------.-----   |...-|..--
 |can|....|...+genrl|..|.-----------+-....}.}.---.............|   --...|..| 
 |dle|........|.....|..|.|..|..|.....|....}}......--------+--.--------....| 
 |---|..`.....-------+--.|#+-#+|.....|...}}}}.....|.....|...|..--..| --...--
 |  |....................|....d|-----|..}}}}}.....|.food|...|......----....|
 | --...........-+-----+-|.@...| |...|.}}}}}}.....|.....|---|.|...........--
 ---...---+---..|G.|(.|..|.....| |scr|.}}}}}......--+---|...|.|--.......--- 
|--....|.....|..|.(|..|..--+-----|oll|..}}}}}...........|...|.|...--....|   
|......|.....|..----+-----.......|...|.}}}}}}}..........--+--.|.----.|..--  
|.#....|.._..|..................--+---.}}}}}}}-+---+-...........|  ----..|  
|......|.....|...------..@............}}..}}}}|G.|..|.........------- --.-- 
--..#..--------..+...(|.....------...}}..}}}}.|(.|@.|....----.......|  ---  
 --.........-----|..G.|.....+..| |..}.}..}}}}.-------...--..--......---     
---.----.....----------.....|..| |.}}}....}}}................|........--    
|...| |.....................|-----}}}.....}}}.----------.----.....--...|    
----- -----------------------  --}}}.---.}}}}.| |      ---  --.|..|-----    
                               |}}}--- ---}}}}| |            ------     

This variant contains four shops and a temple. It is inhabited by 3 gnome lords, 2 gnomes, 2 bugbears, a dwarf lord, a gnome thief, a dwarf thief, a hobbit and a dwarf. The watch captain is also present with 4 guards and a sleeping large dog. The river is infested with up to five jellyfish and up to five piranhas. On the bottom left is a hostile gnome king, of whom there is also a (historic?) statue.

There are four chests, three random items and a randomly placed squeaky board.

The watch-house walls in the center are undiggable, and its door is open. The watchman closet, shop and temple doors are closed, while the rest are locked. Both staircases are on the right side.

Ruined & Dangerous Town

.--------00--0----0--0----00----.
.|-----...{....--------->----.-|.
.0|._.|........|fo||...|.0....|0.
.0|tem|.------.0.o||gen|.0tool||.
.0|ple+.|....|.0.d||...|.|....||.
.||...+.|cand|.00--|...|.--00--0.
.||...|.|....+.....--+--.......|.
.||...|.------...........}}}}}}|.
.|-----.........0--0+-...}}}}}}|.
.------------------.0-----------.
.................................

This variant contains an empty temple, a couple of destroyed shops ("food" and "tool") and plenty of boulders. The candle ("cand") and general ("gen") shops will have active shopkeepers.

The town has a number of gnomes (including a gnome king), a bugbear chieftain, and a 50% chance of a cursed bag of holding.