Net Hack

[Tommi]

OK, I finally managed to get going. Seems that once you gain a few levels it goes much better. I am playing a Valkyrie this time by the way. Just turned out that it was the character I had when I finally managed to get going.

Valkyrie is a good fighter too, a bit like a female barbarian without poison resist.

I think I prayed at the wrong altar. Now my god is mad at me and every time I trie to pray I lose a level or something bad like that :(

Black = Chaotic
Grey = Neutral
White = Lawful

If Gods favor you, you can save your life by praying at times.

One of the most important things in the game is to make sacrifices to your god. Very many sacrifices and good ones. That means normally monster corpses. You have to carry a fresh monster corpse to the altar (or kill it straightly on it) and then press alt-o to offer it. Some 20+ sacrifices are not uncommon. A wand of create monster is great for this job. If you sacrifice enough and have a good luck, you may get a Vorpal Blade for your valkyrie (she's neutral, IIRC). Don't sacrifice humans, unless you want that demon lord to step out.

Btw, you can convert altars to your own faith by making sacrifices upon them. It is uncertain and a bit risky, though.

I figured out that the only way to save and reload so to speak is to save (which exists the game) copy the save file away, and restart game. Works great.

I could call that cheating, but I did the same thing in Angband. :P But never in nethack. It's hardcore. :)

I will try to figure things out myself for a while more. Absolutely NO idea what to do with things like statues, looking glasses, and such silly objects though. Heck, I don't even know all the commands :)

Statues: Some monsters may be posing as statues. ;)
Mirrors: Generally pretty useless, IIRC. Blindfolds are very handy on the other hand.

What does it mean when something is blessed? I have both a blessed +2 dwarf mail and a normal +2dwarf mail (or something like that). Seems to be no difference.

"Blessed" makes some items better. A dwarven mithril shirt does not change, but a blessed scroll of identify identifies all your items while a normal scroll of identify identifies only one or a few. A blessed bag of holding has a better carrying capacity than a normal bag of holding. Also, blessing makes items more curse resistant. The first curse lowers the item from blessed to normal, and the second one is needed to take the item from normal to cursed.

Also, is it generally better to have lesser armor with more + on it than a better armor with less + but with the same final AC?

AFAIK, it is only the final AC that matters. Except that if you want to enchant your armors, the armor with less bonuses and higher base AC is less likely to go poof (IIRC happens only with +5 or greater bonuses). Some armors are also more heavy than others. Lighter armors are always better.

Ohh, and one more. Is there a way to figure out the magical properties of items? I find tons of armor and such to equip, but how do I figure out what it is? Sure the +X is possible by equiping but not more than that.

A scroll of identify is the best way. Find one, bless it by holy water (unless already blessed), put all items you want to identify to your inventory and read the scroll. And all items are identified.

You can also identify if an item is blessed, normal or cursed by dropping it on an altar. Black flash --> cursed. No flash --> uncursed. Bright flash (or something) --> Blessed. An altar of any god will do here. Then you may identify items by wearing them (such as a ring of levitation). An experienced player may also identify a ring of conflict etc. by the way they change the game when worn. You may name items/item-classes by some control (shift-n, IIRC).

Cheers,

Tommi