Rodney's current learn db

!

Symbol: '!' A potion.
Command: '!' Escape to shell.

!bugs

Show information about the bugs that match foo, as listed on the nethack.org website.
Bugs marked as 'Fixed' (meaning, fixed in next version) on the website, are marked with 'nextversion' instead.

!grepsrc

Search the NetHack source for string "foo", and return URLs pointing at the NetHack wiki.
Specify "file=<file name>" as the first parameter to search only in a specific file.

!learn

See [http://alt.org] for a complete listing of Rodney's dictionary terms.
The raw learn.dat file is at [http://alt.org]
[http://alt.org] allows you to search Rodney's database.
Try !learn (del <word> [<#>]|add <word> <def>|info <word>|debug)
Swap 2 definitions with: !learn swap foo[N] bar[M]
To add a redirect, use: "!learn add subject see {redirect_to}" where subject is the subject you are redirecting from and redirect_to is where you want it to go.
You can replace text by using: !learn edit <word> [<#>] s/the text you want to replace/the text you want to replace it with/ Note that this uses Perl regular expressions, so you'll have to escape certain characters like + and $ (but only on the to-replace text).

!lg

[http://alt.org]

!oeh

see {potion of extra healing}

!ofh

see {full_healing}

!ogl

see {potion of gain level}

!ping

A trigger to make Rodney say "Pong!". Useful if you wonder if there's some kind of issue with Rodney, your connection, or Rodney's connection.

!pom

Phase of the Moon. Absolutely important function when it's cloudy, or the moon is on the other side of the planet.

!rc

!rc <name> Show URL to the user's nethackrc

!riot

ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ

!rng

Try "!rng rock paper scissors" to randomly select a word from a list
To use multi-word tokens, use pipes: "!rng NetHack is great|Crawl is not as good"
Also try these: "!rng @coin", "!rng @zorkmid", "!rng @role", "!rng @race", "!rng @gender",

!rub

$CHOICE(5:You see a puff of smoke.|5:Nothing happens.|You disturbed me, fool!|It's about time!|You freed me!|Thank you for freeing me!|I am in your debt. I will grant one wish!)
$CHOICE(5:You see a puff of smoke.|5:Nothing happens.|You disturbed me, fool!|It's about time!|You freed me!|Thank you for freeing me!|I am in your debt. I will grant one wish!)

!save

Tells you if a save file exists on NAO for the given account. If no account name is given, your IRC nick is used.

!saves

see {!save}

!ubiest

use !whereis

!whereis

This command tells you a player's role/race/gender/alignment, score, location and turn count, if used with a player name. If they are carrying the Amulet or are at 1/5 their maximum HP or worse, !whereis will also mention this.
This information is updated when you go to a different level or reload the game. It is *not* updated when you start the game; thus, it will falsely claim players still on Dlvl:1 are "not playing right now".
Without a player name, it will give you a list of players and their positions in the dungeon. You can ask for this to be sorted, e.g. "!whereis --maxhp"; however, this will compare numbers as if they were strings.

"

Symbol: '"' An amulet or spider web.
Command: '"' Tell what amulet you are wearing.

"ols

see {amulet of life saving}

"omb

amulet of magical breathing.

"or

Amulet of Reflection.

#

Dungeon feature: '#' A corridor, iron bars, tree, cloudy area, closed drawbridge, or the kitchen sink!
Command: '#' Perform an extended command. Try '#?' to list them all.

#*:!alcohol

see {#nethack:!alcohol}

#*:!attack

see {#nethack:!attack}

#*:!botsnack

see {#nethack:!botsnack}

#*:!choice

see {#nethack:!choice}

#*:!cluedo

#*:!coffee

see {#nethack:!coffee}

#*:!coin

see {#nethack:!zorkmid}

#*:!date

$DATE

#*:!genocide

see {#nethack:!genocide}

#*:!gift

see {#nethack:!gift}

#*:!goat

$SSUFFIX($NICK) goat walks by and $CHOICE(kicks|headbutts) $IF($ARGS|$SELF|$NICK|$ARGS).

#*:!gt

see {#nethack:!gt}

#*:!huplist

see {#nethack:!hanguplist}

#*:!list

$ACT reads a scroll labeled !LIST. Wiped out all trolls. $NICK dies...

#*:!magic8ball

see {#nethack:!magic8ball}

#*:!nw

[https://nethackwiki.com]$IF($WIKIPAGE($ARGS%)||Special:Search?search=$URLENC($ARGS)&go=1|$WIKIPAGE($ARGS%))

#*:!polymorph

see {#nethack:!polymorph}

#*:!ponify

$ACT zaps a wand of polymorph at $ARG. $ARG turns into $AN($CHOICE(3*pony|3*pegasus|3*unicorn|alicorn))!

#*:!revgeno

see {#nethack:!revgeno}

#*:!rgrn

$IF($(argc)|[http://groups.google.com]$URLENC($ARGS)|[http://bilious.alt.org])

#*:!source

My source is located at [https://github.com]

#*:!time

see {#*:!date}

#*:!tod

see {#nethack:!tod}

#*:!wiki

see {#*:!nw}

#*:!wikilink

see {#*:!nw}

#*:!wl

see {#*:!nw}

#*:!zap

see {#nethack:!zap}

#*:$act goes to bed

see {#nethack:$act_goes_to_bed}

#*:$act kicks $self

see {#nethack:$act_kicks_$self}

#*:$self you suck

$IF($RND(3)||$NICK: $CHOICE(screw you|oh, you too?))

#*:grunthack?

A variant of NetHack with much extended and enhanced behaviour. Public server: grunthack.org (telnet); IRC: #grunthack (here on freenode).

#*:nethack 4?

see {#*:nh4?}

#*:nh4?

NitroHack + AceHack: near vanilla gameplay, improved interface. Public server: nethack4.org (France, telnet nethack4.org / ssh nethack@nethack4.org). See also #nethack4.

#*:nhinrl?

see {nhinrl}

#*:splat?

A death that could have been easily avoided, typically in the late game. Also the sound of breaking eggs.

#*:tnnt?

see {tnnt}

#*:why?

see {#nethack:why?}

#?

Extended command. Help menu: get the list of available extended commands.

#adjust

Extended command. Adjust inventory letters. Most useful when the fixinv option is on.

#ascend

You wish.

#chat

Extended command. Talk to someone.

#conduct

Extended command. List which challenges you have adhered to.

#dip

Extended command. Dip an object into something.

#enhance

Extended command. Advance or check weapons and spell skills.

#force

Extended command. To force a lock, for example on a box or chest. Forcing with an edged weapon has a chance of breaking the weapon. Forcing with a blunt weapon has a chance of breaking the box or items in it. Scrolls tear, potions shatter, and crystal items break.
Yes, you can break artifact weapons this way. Just ask lorephus.
Cursed weapons will never break when used to #force.
Attempting to #force with nothing to force gives "You decide not to force the issue."

#invoke

Extended command. Invoke an object's special powers. Only quest artifacts have invokable powers.
Invoking before the timeout expires adds 3d10 more turns. You'll still get blasted, if applicable. Successful invocation sets the timeout to rnz(100) turns. You can get within less than a turn of the optimal strategy by trying to #invoke once every 78 turns.

#jump

Extended command. Jump to another location. You'll either need spell of jumping, jumping boots, or you need to be a knight.
You may not jump (except by magic) while burdened or worse. You must be able to see the target square. When a Knight uses her jumping ability, the target must be a chess-knight-move away (e.g. 2 north and 1 west). For magical jumping, the target must be <= 3 squares away

#loot

Extended command. Loot a container on the floor beneath you, or the non-cursed saddle from a steed standing next to you.
You must be Strained or below to #loot.

#monster

Extended command. Use a monster's special ability (when polymorphed into monster form).

#name

Extended command. Name an item or type of object.
When you use #name, it will ask you a yes or no question. Answering yes will allow you to name an individual/stack of items (useful for saying this is cursed), while answering no will allow you to call the class of items (useful for saying this is a scroll of light)
see {name}

#nethack

A channel for players on nethack.alt.org to chat to each-other, gloat, ask for help, or just have a 220-man idle party. :)
Not a channel for people trying to locate hard to find information that does not pertain to roguelikes, also not a cover for a hacker team. (Hat color is irrelevant, see hooa.)

#nethack:!8ball

see {#nethack:!magic8ball}

#nethack:!alcohol

$ACT serves a potion of $CHOICE(6*booze|3*sake|1*hallucination) to $ARG.

#nethack:!alignment

You are fated to be $UCFIRST($LALIGN).

#nethack:!attack

#nethack:!badwiki

[http://alt.org]

#nethack:!booze

see {#nethack:!alcohol}

#nethack:!botsnack

$CHOICE(3*om nom nom|So thou thoughst thou couldst mollify me with a snack, fool!)

#nethack:!buc

$CHOICE(blessed|uncursed|cursed)

#nethack:!calc

$CALC($ARGS)

#nethack:!choice

$CHOICE($UNESCAPE($ARGS))

#nethack:!choose

see {#nethack:!choice}

#nethack:!coffee

#nethack:!conduct

Conduct: $CHOICE(Every $RND(2,1000) turns you must|Never|Do not|You must|You may not) $CHOICE(learn the BUC status of|eat|#name|wield|wear|throw) $CHOICE(a cockatrice corpse|any item|every artifact|your starting weapon|a quest artifact)$CHOICE(10*.| more than $RND(2,10) times.| within the first $RND(2,20)000 turns.| outside the Elemental Planes.| inside Gehennom.| unless in sight of your pet.| unless naked.| unless blindfolded.| unless confused.| unless engulfed.)
Conduct: $CHOICE(Never|Do not|You must|You may not) $CHOICE(call|#chat with|tame|saddle|consort with|kill|polymorph|scare|attack) $CHOICE(a pudding|Rodney|your quest nemesis|your starting pet) $CHOICE(more than $RND(2,10) times|within the first $RND(2,20)000 turns|outside the Elemental Planes|inside Gehennom|while in sight of your pet|while naked|while blindfolded|unless confused|while engulfed).$CHOICE(9*|1*$THEN $ACT stares sternly and wields Vorpal Blade.)
Conduct: $CHOICE(Never|Do not|You must|You may not) $CHOICE(bless|wield|eat|throw|enchant|engrave with) $CHOICE(your starting weapon|a polearm|an artifact|a dagger) $CHOICE(more than $RND(2,10) times|fewer than $RND(2,10) times|within the first $RND(2,20)000 turns|outside the Elemental Planes|inside Gehennom|while in sight of your pet|while naked|while blindfolded|unless confused|while engulfed).
Conduct: $CHOICE(Do|You must do|You must not do|You may not do) $CHOICE(3*|the opposite of )what $CHOICE(people in #nethack tell|!conduct tells|any rumors you read tell|your mother tells) you to do.
Conduct: $CHOICE(You may not create, split, or revive any monster.|You must sacrifice a coaligned unicorn on the High Altar of Moloch.|Neutral atheist pacifist non-healer. Kudos to your quest leader.|#Quit if you don't ascend by turn $RND(25,50)00.|You must kill Izchak, and get the people in RGRN to approve.|Never use dragon scales or mail.|Zen pacifist.|You may not press the key "p", and you must report your ascension to John Harris.|Your character may pass over at most 500 different tiles.|Wear/wield/use only silver armor/rings/amulets/weapons/wands.)

#nethack:!d

$RND($ARGS)

#nethack:!dc

$IF($ISINT($ARGS)|$CALC($ARGS*400)|$NICK: Need a positive integer value for that.)

#nethack:!deathsby

[http://alt.org]$ARGS

#nethack:!decapitate

#nethack:!donationcalc

see {#nethack:!dc}

#nethack:!eightball

see {#nethack:!magic8ball}

#nethack:!fruit

#nethack:!genocide

$CHOICE(10*Wiped out all $PLURAL($ARGS).|3*Sent in some $PLURAL($ARGS).|3*Wiped out all players.|2*A thunderous voice booms through the caverns: "No, mortal, that shall not be done!")

#nethack:!gift

$ACT $IF($LC($ARGS)|$LC($NICK)|sneers.|$CHOICE(5*gives|throws) $ARGS $AN($CHOICE($BUC|3*) $RNDOBJ))
$ACT $CHOICE(5*gives|throws) $ARGS $AN($CHOICE($BUC|3*) $RNDOBJ)

#nethack:!git

[https://github.com]

#nethack:!goodwiki

[https://nethackwiki.com]

#nethack:!google

<[http://google.com]$URLENC($ARGS)>

#nethack:!gt

Go Team $ARGS!

#nethack:!guidebook

[https://nethack.org]

#nethack:!hanguplist

$IF($ISPLR($ARGS)|[http://alt.org]$PLRNAME($ARGS)/hanguplist.txt|No such user on NAO.)

#nethack:!help

Quick command help: [http://alt.org] ; for a short list see ?? bot_commands.

#nethack:!huplist

see {#nethack:!hanguplist}

#nethack:!ifl

[[http://www.google.com]$URLENC($ARGS)&btnI]

#nethack:!info

see {#nethack:!plr}

#nethack:!isotime

$TIMEFMT(%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)

#nethack:!kill

$IF($LC($ARGS)|$LC($SELF)|$NICK|$ARGS) ($CHAR), $RND(1,2000000) points, T:$RND(2000,50000), killed by the Wizard of Yendor called Rodney

#nethack:!levelfiles

Try !lvlfiles [name].

#nethack:!lmgtfy

[http://lmgtfy.com]$URLENC($ARGS)

#nethack:!magic8ball

#nethack:!mail360

3.6.0 has no support for "simplemail" which is what dgamelaunch uses. 3.6.1 has it.

#nethack:!moon

see {#nethack:!pom}

#nethack:!naoplr

see {#nethack:!plr}

#nethack:!netsplit

see {#nethack:netsplit?}

#nethack:!nhqdb

see {#nethack:!qdb}

#nethack:!nopaste

[http://www.pastebin.com]

#nethack:!ogl?

Potion of gain level

#nethack:!passwd

see {#nethack:passwd?}

#nethack:!password

see {#nethack:passwd?}

#nethack:!ping

Pong!

#nethack:!player

see {#nethack:!plr}

#nethack:!plr

$IF($ISPLR($ARGS)|[http://alt.org]$PLRNAME($ARGS)|No such username on NAO.)

#nethack:!poly

see {#nethack:!polymorph}

#nethack:!polymorph

#nethack:!pom

$POM

#nethack:!porn

see {#nethack:!pom}

#nethack:!potm

see {#nethack:!pom}

#nethack:!qdb

[http://nhqdb.alt.org]$IF($LC($ARG)|$LC($NICK)||?$URLENC($ARGS))

#nethack:!quote

see {#nethack:!qdb}

#nethack:!revgeno

$CHOICE(8*Sent in some $PLURAL($ARGS).|Wiped out all $PLURAL($NICK).)

#nethack:!rn2

$RND(0,$ARG)

#nethack:!rndobj

$RNDOBJ

#nethack:!rngattitude

#nethack:!rngconduct

$SET(conductlist|$TRIM($CHOICE(vegetarian |vegan |foodless |10*)$CHOICE(pacifist |4*)$CHOICE(atheist |4*)$CHOICE(illiterate |4*)$CHOICE(wishless |4*)$CHOICE(weaponless |4*)$CHOICE(genoless |4*)$CHOICE(polypileless |4*)$CHOICE(polyselfless|4*)))$IF($(conductlist)||Break all conducts|Your conduct is: $(conductlist)).

#nethack:!rnz

$CALC($ARG*((1000+$RND(1,1000))*$CHOICE(1|1|1|$CHOICE(2|2|2|$CHOICE(3|3|3|4))))/1000)
$CALC($ARG*1000/((1000+$RND(1,1000))*$CHOICE(1|1|1|$CHOICE(2|2|2|$CHOICE(3|3|3|4)))))

#nethack:!role

The RNG says: $UCFIRST($LROLE)

#nethack:!roles

Ascend them in _this_ order: $SHUFFLE(Arc|Bar|Cav|Hea|Kni|Mon|Pri|Rog|Ran|Sam|Tou|Val|Wiz).

#nethack:!site

[http://www.alt.org]

#nethack:!src

[https://nethackwiki.com]$URLENC($REPLACESTR( |_|$ARGS))

#nethack:!ssh

NAO supports ssh now: ssh nethack@alt.org

#nethack:!tea

#nethack:!team

Go team $ARGS!

#nethack:!throw

#nethack:!tod

$ACT $CHOICE(3*hits|misses) $ARGS. Rodney casts a spell at $ARGS! Oh no, he's using the touch of death! $CHOICE(10*Lucky for $ARGS, it didn't work!|29*$ARGS dies...|$ARGS has an out of body experience.|$ARGS dies... But wait... $SSUFFIX($ARGS) medallion begins to glow! $ARGS looks much better. The medallion crumbles to dust!|3*$ARGS seems no deader than before.)

#nethack:!troll

$ACT zaps $ARGS with a wand of polymorph! $ARGS turns into a long worm! Rodney threads $ARGS on a grappling hook! Rodney casts $ARGS off the side of Charon's boat. How's it feel to be trolled with?
You have a trolled feeling for a moment, then it passes.
Ts trolling Ts trolling $NICK.

#nethack:!tty

see {#nethack:!ttyrec}

#nethack:!ttyrec

$IF($ISPLR($ARGS)|[http://alt.org]$PLRNAME($ARGS)/ttyrec|No such user on NAO.)

#nethack:!undeadturn

$CHOICE($SSUFFIX($ARGS) corpse suddenly comes alive!|$CHOICE($SSUFFIX($NICK) $RNDMON corpse suddenly comes alive! |)$NICK shudders in dread.)

#nethack:!unixtime

$TIMEFMT(%s)

#nethack:!uptime

I've been up for $UPTIME. The server's been up for $SERVERUPTIME.

#nethack:!variant

#nethack:!vikeys

Movement keys in vi-mode: y k u h . l b j n

#nethack:!virus

[https://alt.org]

#nethack:!vladbane

$CHOICE(8*|blessed |cursed )$CHOICE(5*thoroughly rusty |4*very rusty |3*rusty |)$CHOICE(3*thoroughly corroded |2*very corroded |corroded |)$CHOICE(9*|rustproof )$CHOICE(tin opener|skeleton key|lock pick|stethoscope|tin whistle|tinning kit|can of grease|beartrap|landmine|pick-axe|grappling hook|heavy iron ball|iron chain)
$CHOICE(7*uncursed |2*blessed |cursed )$CHOICE(3*thoroughly burnt |2*very burnt |burnt |)$CHOICE(6*|3*thoroughly rotted |2*very rotted |rotted )$CHOICE(blindfold|towel|leash|saddle|sack|oilskin sack|bag of holding|large box|chest|bag of tricks|tallow candle|wax candle|leather drum|drum of earthquake|wooden harp|wooden flute|magic harp|magic flute)
$CHOICE(8*|blessed |cursed )$CHOICE(5*thoroughly corroded |4*very corroded |3*corroded |)$CHOICE(brass lantern|oil lamp|magic lamp|bugle|bell)
$CHOICE(8*|blessed |cursed )$CHOICE(5*thoroughly burnt |4*very burnt |3*burnt |)$CHOICE(credit card|expensive camera|magic marker)
the $CHOICE(cursed|2*uncursed|3*blessed) $CHOICE(-7|-6|-5|-4|-3|-2|-1|5*+0|5*+6|10*+7|+8|+9) $CHOICE(Breadknife|Sting|Grayswandir|Werebane|Tsurugi of Muramasa|Vorpal Blade)
$CHOICE(3*|cursed |uncursed |blessed )$CHOICE(rubber hose|boomerang|shuriken|runesword|rustproof wand of wishing|partisan|fauchard|glaive|bec-de-corbin|spetum|lucern hammer|guisarme|ranseur|voulge|bill-guisarme|bardiche|halberd|towel|wet towel|meat stick|huge chunk of meat)

#nethack:!vladsbane

see {#nethack:!vladbane}

#nethack:!vuln

$ACT turns $NICK into a newt!

#nethack:!waytodie

$ACT asks the RNG for a way to die. The voice of the RNG $CHOICE(booms|thunders): $CHOICE(Thou shalt|You shall) $CHOICE(20*die by jumping into lava!|20*drown!|20*get killed by Lord Surtur!|20*get killed by a chaotic high priest!|20*get killed by the wrath of Moloch!|20*get killed by Vlad the Impaler!|20*get killed by Medusa!|20*choke on a meatball!|20*choke on a meat stick!|20*choke on a meat ring!)
$ACT asks the RNG for a way to die. The voice of the RNG $CHOICE(booms|thunders): $CHOICE(Thou shalt|You shall) $CHOICE(10*get killed by the all mighty powerful Wizard of Yendor|20*choke on Medusa's corpse|20*choke on a tin of cockatrice meat|20*choke on a wraith corpse|30*get killed by my wrath|20*get killed by team a|5*get killed by a newt named @bane|10*choke on a huge chunk of meat|15*choke on the Oracle's corpse)!

#nethack:!whatdo

Wait 10 seconds and $CHOICE(review inventory|check wiki|ask #nethack|get $CHOICE(3*a drink|some drinks)|try again).
$CHOICE(Stuff bones.|4*Engrave Elbereth and $CHOICE(throw daggers|throw rocks|zap wands|cast spells).)

#nethack:!wikipedia

[http://en.wikipedia.org]$URLENC($ARGS)&go=Go

#nethack:!wish

blessed greased +3 silver dragon scale mail
blessed greased fixed +3 cloak of magic resistance
uncursed greased fixed magic marker
blessed greased fixed +3 speed boots
3 cursed greased fireproof burning scrolls of genocide

#nethack:!wish string

blessed greased fixed +3 $ARGS

#nethack:!wod

$ACT zaps a wand of death at $ARG! $ARG is killed by the death ray!

#nethack:!wp

<[http://en.wikipedia.org]$URLENC($ARGS)&go=Go>

#nethack:!zap

#nethack:!zorkmid

The RNG $CHOICE(has|hath) spoken. You receive: $CHOICE(a visit from Rodney|99*$CHOICE(heads|tails)).

#nethack:"?

Amulet.

#nethack:"ols?

Amulet of life saving.

#nethack:#nethack?

see {#nethack:nethack?}

#nethack:$act asks $self

$CHOICE(Go ahead.|What makes you think I'd know that?|I shall not answer.|*sniff*)

#nethack:$act bites $self

No biting! Bad $NICK! Bad!

#nethack:$act cries

$ACT laughs fiendishly.

#nethack:$act dies

$ACT $CHOICE(giggles|chuckles|snickers|laughs).

#nethack:$act goes to bed

$ACT zaps a wand of $CHOICE(10*sleep|death) at $NICK.

#nethack:$act goes to sleep

see {#nethack:$act_goes_to_bed}

#nethack:$act high-fives $self

$ACT ignores $NICK.

#nethack:$act high fives $self

$ACT ignores $NICK.

#nethack:$act highfives $self

$ACT ignores $NICK.

#nethack:$act hits $self

You need a better weapon to hit me, fool!

#nethack:$act hugs $self

$ACT glares at $NICK.

#nethack:$act is confused

$ACT hits $NICK with a blessed unicorn horn.

#nethack:$act is off to bed

$ACT zaps a wand of $CHOICE(10*sleep|death) at $NICK.

#nethack:$act is still alive

$CHOICE(Not for long.|We'll see about that.)

#nethack:$act kicks $self

$ACT evades $SSUFFIX($NICK) clumsy kick.

#nethack:$act kills $self

$CHOICE(I shall return.|I'll be back.)

#nethack:$act looks at $self

$ACT scowls at $NICK menacingly!

#nethack:$act pats $self

$ACT stabs $NICK with a cursed dagger.

#nethack:$act pokes $self

$ACT wakes up, startled!

#nethack:$act slaps $self around a bit with a large trout

$ACT slaps $NICK with a $CHOICE(cockatrice|5*kraken) corpse.

#nethack:$act stares at $self

Creep.

#nethack:$act throws a cream pie at $self

$ACT evades the pie. Splat! The cream pie hits $RNICK instead!

#nethack:$act waves at $self

Yes, I can see you.$CHOICE(3*| Now square for me.)

#nethack:--more--

$IF($(argc)||$ACT $CHOICE(3*hits|misses) $NICK. $SELF casts a spell at $NICK! Oh no, he's using the touch of death!--More--$THEN $CHOICE(10*Lucky for $NICK, it didn't work!|29*$NICK dies...|$NICK has an out of body experience.|$NICK dies... But wait... $SSUFFIX($NICK) medallion begins toglow! $NICK looks much better. The medallion crumbles to dust!|3*$NICK seems no deader than before.)|)

#nethack:/ow?

wand of wishing

#nethack:50?

see {nao50}

#nethack:=oid?

Ring of increase damage.

#nethack:=opfsc?

see {#nethack:pfsc?}

#nethack:=pfsc?

see {#nethack:pfsc?}

#nethack:?oid?

Scroll of identify

#nethack:ace?

AceHack, a NetHack variant. '/join #acehack' for more info.

#nethack:acehack?

Vanilla gameplay, improved interface.

#nethack:ade?

Public server hosting dNetHack, NAOHack and SLASH'EM Extended: ssh nethack@nethack.xd.cm (Germany, ssh only); see also #acehack.de

#nethack:ak?

Ascension kit, the items commonly used to help ascend.

#nethack:aon?

#nethack:aus?

see {#nethack:acehack?}

#nethack:bagoban?

see {#nethack:sokobag?}

#nethack:bdsm?

Black (or blue) dragon scale mail. What were you thinking?

#nethack:boh?

A bag of holding. Very useful item; it (usually) reduces the weight of items inside it.

#nethack:bug?

If you found a bug, use [https://nethack.org] to report it - see also [https://nethackwiki.com]

#nethack:cao?

crawl.akrasiac.org; Crawl's equivalent of NAO

#nethack:cba?

Can't be arsed

#nethack:cpm?

Crystal plate mail.

#nethack:crawl?

That other game

#nethack:dcss?

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, another roguelike not entirely unlike NetHack.

#nethack:demi?

Demirobin, a community account for players who are experienced. See ??demirobin for more info.

#nethack:demonbane?

A mostly useless lawful artifact sword.

#nethack:devnull?

A NetHack tournament running every November; see [http://nethack.devnull.net] and #devnull_nethack.

#nethack:dfv?

Dig for Victory

#nethack:dnethack?

dNetHack: Dungeons and Extra-Terrestrial Hack. See #dnethack and [https://nethackwiki.com] ; public server at (ssh) nethack@nethack.xd.cm

#nethack:doas?

deathonastick.

#nethack:dsm?

Dragon scale mail.

#nethack:dywypi?

"Do you want your possessions identified?", the first thing the game (in)famously asks you when you've died.

#nethack:e?

see {#nethack:elbereth?}

#nethack:ebonhack?

A telnet client that lets you play in tiles on a public server (It's evil!) [http://www.junction404.com]

#nethack:elbereth?

Elbereth, the key to survival. E scares all hostile monsters that aren't @, A, the Riders or minotaurs. But you have to learn how to use it!

#nethack:eota?

Eye of the Aethiopica

#nethack:epi?

Evil Patch Idea

#nethack:eris?

The Goddess of Discord. Worshipped by Discordians.

#nethack:fod?

Finger of death.

#nethack:gdsm?

Grey dragon scale mail.

#nethack:gnip!

!gnoP

#nethack:gnome-terminal?

$NICK: It sucks. Don't use it with vt_tiledata.

#nethack:god?

Gauntlets of dexterity. RNG.
Yes?

#nethack:gop?

Gauntlets of power.

#nethack:grays?

Grayswandir, a quite nice artifact silver saber.

#nethack:grayswandir?

The father of all $CHOICE(weapons|sabers|swords). Fear its $CHOICE(19*elite|l33t) powers.

#nethack:gs?

Grayswandir, an artifact silver saber.

#nethack:gwtwod?

Gnome with the wand of death

#nethack:hello

$IF($(argc)||Hello $NICK, welcome to $CHAN! You are a neutral human nethacker.--More--|)

#nethack:hob?

$CHOICE(3*Helm of Brilliance|Hag of Bolding).

#nethack:hobug?

Using a cursed scroll of destroy armor on a cursed helm of brilliance: the helm's enchantment will decrease, but your intelligence will erroneously stay increased.

#nethack:hoh?

Heaven or hell: a game mode in UnNetHack and AceHack in which everything has 1 HP permanently.

#nethack:hooa?

Helm of opposite alignment.

#nethack:ign?

In game nick

#nethack:iirc?

If I $CHOICE(Recall|Remember) Correctly.

#nethack:ipbt?

A "high-tech ttyrec player for Unix" allowing you to rewind and search: [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk]

#nethack:junethack?

The NetHack Cross-Variant Summer Tournament: See [http://junethack.de] and #junethack!

#nethack:lag?

$CHOICE(Blame your ISP.|It's on your end.|What lag?)

#nethack:magicbane?

The bestest weapon ever.

#nethack:maxint?

The maximum value of a 32 bit signed integer (e.g. score, turncount): 2147483647.

#nethack:mineflayer?

Random h in mines was a mind flayer.

#nethack:minesflayer?

Random h in mines was a mind flayer.

#nethack:mkot?

Master Key of Thievery. Half physical damage, warning, TC. Chaotic.

#nethack:mm?

The most ambiguous abbreviation ever invented. Could be (spell/wand) of magic missile, (scroll/book) of magic mapping, or magic marker.

#nethack:mmf?

Master mind flayer. An annoyance.

#nethack:mmom?

Magic Mirror of Merlin; the (lawful) knight quest artifact.

#nethack:mojo?

Mjollnir

#nethack:more

see {#nethack:--more--}

#nethack:mr?

Magic resistance.

#nethack:nao?

#nethack:naohack?

NAO's modified version of NetHack; see [http://alt.org] for details and [http://alt.org] for the git repository.

#nethack:naonh?

see {#nethack:naohack?}

#nethack:nethack?

NetHack is a game, kinda like Diablo, but much better -- the name refers to hacking monsters, not computers. See the join message for more information.

#nethack:netsplit!

see {#nethack:netsplit?}

#nethack:netsplit?

Ashikaga Takauji swings the Tsurugi of Muramasa. Ashikaga Takauji hits! The Tsurugi of Muramasa cuts freenode in half!

#nethack:neu?

nethack.eu: NetHack server located in southern Germany, deaths reported in #nethack.de

#nethack:nfi?

nethack.fi: NetHack server located in Finland, #nethack @ open.ircnet.net

#nethack:nsfw?

Not Safe For Work. Click at own risk.

#nethack:nxc?

see {#nethack:ade?}

#nethack:ood?

Orb of Detection; the (lawful) archeologist quest artifact.

#nethack:oof?

Orb of fate. Valkyrie quest artifact. Highly desirable: half physical and spell damage, warning, levelport, and luckstone. It's also a crystal ball and therefore 150 units of weight.

#nethack:orcrist?

A mostly useless Elven broadsword.

#nethack:passwd?

NAO password reset: [http://alt.org]

#nethack:pfsc?

Ring of protection from shape changers. This handy ring makes all shape changers stay in their base form. For example, chameleons appear as :, rather than their changed form.

#nethack:plugh

A hollow voice says, "Fool."

#nethack:pr?

Poison resistance

#nethack:puddingbane?

A tool for splitting puddings while dealing only 1 damage. They are knives or orcish daggers at -3 and thoroughly corroded. However, you can use a non-weapon iron item to farm and keep the weaponless conduct.

#nethack:putty?

[http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk]

#nethack:pyec?

Platinum Yendorian Express Card
Platinum Yendorian Express Card. That's what makes tourists overpowered.

#nethack:qdb?

[http://nhqdb.alt.org]

#nethack:reflectoban?

The version of soko level 4 with an amulet of reflection.

#nethack:rgrn?

rec.games.roguelike.nethack - the (active) nethack newsgroup.

#nethack:rng?

Random $CHOICE(Number|NetHack) $CHOICE(Generator|God|Goddess)

#nethack:rodney!

What!
Me!
$USER!

#nethack:rodney?

Don't disturb me, I'm watching a game.
Yes?
$NICK?
No.
Pong!
I'm sorry, Rodney is currently unavailable. Please leave your name and a brief message after the beep. *BEEP*
$ACT zaps a wand of polymorph at $NICK. $NICK turns into $AN($RNDMON).
Me?

#nethack:rrga?

Role, race, gender, alignment; #nethack's ASL.

#nethack:sdd?

Secret door detection.

#nethack:sdsm?

Silver dragon scale mail.

#nethack:shk?

Shopkeeper.

#nethack:soa?

The Staff of Aesculapius; it's the (neutral) healer quest artifact.

#nethack:sokobag?

The version of soko level 4 with a bag of holding.

#nethack:som?

The Sceptre of Might; the caveman quest artifact. It's lawful.

#nethack:ssh?

see {#nethack:!ssh}

#nethack:stop!

$CHOICE(Hammertime!|Collaborate! Listen!|In the name of love!)

#nethack:taeb?

The Tactical Amulet Extraction Bot: [http://taeb.github.io]

#nethack:tas?

Tool-assisted speedrun: see [http://tasvideos.org] for more general information. There is also a NetHack TAS in progress: see [http://tasvideos.org]

#nethack:tdttoe?

The DevTeam thinks of everything.

#nethack:tfewtfwos?

the fucking elf with the fucking wand of sleep

#nethack:tiles?

They are evil and want you dead.

#nethack:unnethack?

What NetHack would look like if it were still in development. Public server: [http://un.nethack.nu]

#nethack:vorpy?

One, two! One, two! And through and through! The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head he went galumphing back.

#nethack:votd?

Valley of the Dead

#nethack:vs?

The vibrating square, where you perform the Invocation to enter Moloch's Sanctum.

#nethack:wadb?

A wide-angle disintegration beam: the most extreme of divine retributions.

#nethack:wbo?

"with bells on"; the devnull tournament's term for "within a streak".

#nethack:wow?

Wand of wishing

#nethack:yaad?

Yet Another Annoying Death

#nethack:yaap?

Yet Another Ascension Post

#nethack:yafap?

Yet Another First Ascension Post

#nethack:yafm?

Yet Another Funny Message

#nethack:yani?

Yet Another $CHOICE(Nice|New|Nifty|NetHack) $CHOICE(Idea|Improvement)

#nethack:yasd?

Yet Another Stupid Death

#nethack:ydsm?

Yellow dragon scale mail. Provides acid resistance.

#nethackwiki:!sandbox

[https://nethackwiki.com]

#nethackwiki:hello

$IF($(argc)||Hello $NICK, welcome to $CHAN! You are a neutral human editor.--More--|)

#offer

Extended command. Offer a sacrifice to the gods.
In order to offer something, you have to be able to touch it, so don't offer footrice corpses without gloves.
Also known as 'saccing'.
Some bad things to offer unless you're sure you know what you're doing include: a former pet (angers your god), a coaligned unicorn, a corpse of your own race.

#paxedtest:!test

$CHOICE(a|||)

#pray

Extended command. Pray to the gods for help.
To get holy waters when praying, leave them on a coaligned altar, stand on the altar and pray, and they'll be blessed unless $DEITY is pissed.
Need help? Praying spoiler: <[http://www.steelypips.org]

#quit

Extended command. Quit the program without saving your game. You don't need to use this, you'll die soon anyway.
"Winners never quit, and quitters never win" is one of the false rumors.
Instead of using this command, try using 'S', to save your game.

#ride

Extended command. Ride (or dismount) a monster.

#rub

Extended command. Rub a lamp or a stone.

#sit

Extended command. Sit down.
Don't sit on altars!
To lay an egg, polymorph yourself into a female of an egg-laying species, and #sit on the ground.
See also throne.
Sit on a trap to activate it. Useful for magic traps if you want karma and battle, and levelporters if you forgot to remove your magic resistance.

#turn

Extended command, turn undead. Priests and Knights can call upon their deity to turn undead, which will destroy or frighten nearby Z, M, W, L, V, ghosts, shades and vampire bats. For chaotics, #turn will not destroy, but pacify.
The damage to the undead is dealt immediately, but you will be inactive for a total of five turns. Be careful!
You cannot #turn in Gehennom: "Since you are in Gehennom, $DEITY won't help you." Nothing happens (no angry gods, no turns taken, etc.), except your atheist conduct is broken.
You cannot #turn as undead or a demon, unless you are chaotic.
The range is between 5 and 11 squares (based on experience level).

#twoweapon

see {twoweapon}

#untrap

Extended command. Untrap a trap, door, or a chest.
#untrap a trapped monster to possibly turn it peaceful or tame.

#updatestatus

see {botl_updates}

#version

Extended command. Print compile time options for this version of NetHack.

#wipe

Extended command. Wipe off your face. Useful after a keystone kop blinded you with a cream pie.

$

Symbol: '$' A pile of coins or a coin. In NetHack the currency is the zorkmid.
Command: '$' Count your gold.
A thrown zorkmid, if not caught, will always miss. You can throw gold in a shop to detect mimics.

%

Symbol: '%' Something edible (not necessarily healthy or conducive to long life).
Symbol: '%' On the Rogue level, these are the stairs, not food. But the keyboard shortcuts stay < > e.g. at the farlook prompt.

&

Command: '&' Tells what a command does.
Monster: '&' Demons and other nasty things. Non-uniques include water demons, horned devils, succubi, incubi, erinyes, barbed devils, mariliths, vrocks, hezrous, bone|ice devils, nalfeshnee, pit fiends, balrogs, djinni and sandestin. Also, equally nasty: mail daemons.
Monster: '&' Several unique monsters. Asmodeus, Juiblex, Orcus, and Baalzebub, Death, Famine, and Pestilence are guarenteed to be in each game (if you make it far enough) while Yeenoghu, Geryon, Dispater, and Demogorgon are not.

'

Monster: ''' A straw, paper, rope, gold, leather, wood, flesh, clay, stone, glass or iron golem.
You can reconfigure this symbol to 7, using the "monsters" config file option, to make it more easily visible.

(

Command: '(' Tell what tool(s) you are using.
Symbol: '(' A tool.

(oh

Bag of Holding

(ot

see {Bag_of_tricks}

)

Symbol: ')' A weapon.
Command: ')' Tell what weapon(s) you are wielding.

*

Symbol: '*' A gem, piece of glass, or rock. Possibly valuable, possibly worthless.
Command: '*' Tell what equipment you are using, commands ')', '[', '=', '"', and '(' rolled into one.
Also, gold pieces in the Rogue level.
If you thought using this command would break Rodney, shame on you!

'** <term>' searches the database for occurences of term <term>
Note: this is a full-text search.
By default '** foo' gives private messages. If you need to spam the channel, use '*> foo'
If you're looking for information on the "Str: 18/**" oddity, see {18/**}

*<

This searches the learndb for a specified term and sends the result via NOTICE. See also {**}

*>

This searches the learndb for a specified term and sends the result to the channel. See also {**}

+

Symbol: '+' A spellbook.
Dungeon feature: '+' A closed door.
Command: '+' List the spells you know and rearrange them if you want.

+2

see {+2_or_+3}

+2 or +3

The short answer: It depends. You have 60% chance of getting +3, and 80% chance of getting +2.
If you are wishing for something where the special properties of the item itself are worth more than the + (silver or grey dragon scale mail, for example), then go with +3.
If you are wishing for something where the + is the whole point of the thing (gauntlets of dexterity or a helm of brilliance), you should go with +2.
The pure math says that +3 will come out slightly ahead in the long run, but there is no "long run" in NetHack, just a series of individual events. Beyond this, you must make your own decision.

+2 vs +3

see {+2_or_+3}

+3

see {+2_or_+3}

,

Command: ',' Pick up items from the floor.

-

Dungeon feature: '-' A wall of a room.

.

Direction: '.' Use to zap wands and spells at yourself, etc.
Dungeon feature: '.' The floor of a room, a lowered drawbridge, ice, or a doorless doorway.
Command: '.' Rest, do nothing for one turn.

/

Symbol: '/' A wand.
Command: '/' Tell what a symbol represents.

/dev/null

see {devnull}

/ocm

Wand of Create Monster.

/odig

Wand of digging.

/os

see {wand_of_striking}

/ospeed

see {wand_of_speed}

/ow

Wand of Wishing.

12 conduct ascension

The extreme challenge of ascending in NetHack without breaking a single official conduct.

200 boulder steal

Like the 200 rock steal, but faster to implement.
Basically it involves reading numerous scrolls of earth in a shop, then polymorphing into a giant and picking them up.
Unfortunately, you then find yourself unable to pick up anything else (other than more boulders), and attempting to drop the boulders can cause a segmentation fault.
Also see {200_rock_steal}

200 meatball steal

see {200_rock_steal}

200 meatballs

see {200_rocks}

200 rock steal

The maximum number of items you can be charged for in a shop is 200. Anything you pick up after that you get for free. If you can find 200 rocks and name then each a different thing so they don't stack, and place them in a Bag of Holding to reduce weight, you can then throw it into a shop, and once you pick it back up eveything else you pick up is free.
You can then easily sell the expensive items back to the shopkeeper repeatedly [no pet-steal necesary] to bleed him dry of cash, and build up enough credit for the price of the bag and rocks. For more detail, see [https://nethackwiki.com]
For the Healers or others with Stone-to-flesh as an option, you can get a very significant weight reduction by pulling off the 200_meatball_steal instead

200 rocks

see {200_rock_steal}

360-dumplogs

Dumplogs are not available in 3.6.0, but will be available in 3.6.1.
Yes, Rodney triggers are broken even for 3.4.3 dumplogs

50 zm potion

Booze, fruit juice, see invisible, or sickness.

50zm potion

see {50_zm_potion}

60 zm scroll

see {60zm_scroll}

60zm scroll

Blank paper (but that one's obvious) or enchant weapon.

80 zm scroll

Enchant armor or remove curse

90%_cursed

You can identify some randomly appearing items by their probability of being cursed. Item groups that might be 90% cursed: rings, amulets, boots, gloves, and helmets.

:

Command: ':' Look at what is here. It works while levitating (unless you are blind), and it doesn't take a turn (unless you are blind).
Monster: ':' Lizard and lizard-like things. Newts (which are reptiles, right?), geckos, iguanas, useful lizards, chameleons (which don't usually appear as a ':'), (baby) crocodiles and salamanders.

:)

A newt adjacent to a weapon, adjacent to a piece of armor, adjacent to an unseen low-level monster, adjacent to a wand, adjacent to another low-level unseen monster, adjacent to a mimic, adjacent to a crocodile, adjacent to a shade, adjacent to an Archon, etc.

;

Command: ';' Show what type of thing a visible symbol corresponds to.
Monster: ';' Want to sleep with the fishes? Jellyfish, piranhas, sharks, giant eels, electric eels, and kraken are represented by this symbol. Several of them are quite dangerous. A good genocide choice.

<

Direction: '<' Use to throw potions up, etc. Warning: What goes up...
Command: '<' Go up stairs, ladders, etc.
Symbol: '<' Stairs up.

=

Symbol: '=' A ring.
Command: '=' Tell what rings you are wearing.

=oid

Ring of Increase Damage, not Ring of Identify.

=osa

ring of sustain ability. Prevents your stats from going down -- but also prevents them from going up, too.

=osd

see {slow_digestion}

>

Direction: '>' Use to zap wands and spells down, find the health of your steed with a stethoscope, etc.
Command: '>' Go down stairs, ladders, jump through trap doors, etc.
Dungeon feature: '>' Stairs down.

?

Symbol: '?' A scroll.
Command: '?' Help menu.
Command: 'Meta-?' Same as '#?'.

?<

Are you tired of the same old /msg /msg? Would you rather see how the /notice crowd lives? Then this might be the product for you! (It just sends the response with notices (/notice) instead of privmsgs (/msg). See {??}.)

?>

Broadcasts a learndb entry to the entire channel. See {??}, {?<}, {**}, {*>}

??

Just do a ?? word or ?? word > nick
By default '?? foo' gives private messages. If you need to spam the channel, use '?> foo'. You can use ?< rather than ?? to get a private notice rather than private message; this looks nicer in some clients.

?oc

Scroll of Charging.

?ocm

Scroll of Create Monster.

?oe

see {scroll of earth}

?oea

Scroll of Enchant Armor.

?oearth

see {scroll_of_earth}

?oew

Scroll of Enchant Weapon.

?og

Scroll of Genocide.

?ogd

scroll of gold detection

?omm

Scroll of Magic Mapping

?osm

see {scare_monster}

@

Command: '@' Toggle autopickup on or off.
Monster: '@' Your character, a human, or an elf. Dopplegangers are human, but usually aren't an '@' sign if you see them.
Monster: '@' The Wizard of Yendor is represented by this symbol.
If used in a menu, it will invert selection. (An easy way to select all.)

[

Command: '[' Tell what armor you are wearing.

[gop

Gauntlets of Power

[hob

Helm of Brilliance

[hooa

see {Helm of Opposite Alignment}

[ooa

see {Helm of Opposite Alignment}

[or

Shield of Reflection

[s]

A Slash'em specific post on RGRN.

[sor

Shield of Reflection

\

Dungeon feature: '\' An opulent throne to #sit on.
Command: '\' List what objects have been discovered and what their appearance is.

]

If you see this symbol, it is a mimic hiding on an early level. Later on, mimics will start looking like actual objects, to confuse you.

^

Dungeon feature: '^' A trap (once you have found it).
Command: '^' Ask what type of trap you found earlier.
Default menu accelerator: '^' for first page in a menu.

^x

The ^X command (that's ctrl+x) displays your character's starting and current attributes, as well as your role's deity names.

_

Symbol: An iron chain.
Command: '_' Travel to a map location via the shortest-path algorithm. Avoids known traps but won't avoid swimming.
Dungeon feature: '_' An altar.

`

Symbol: '`' A boulder or statue, by default. Some people configure boulders to by represented by a zero '0' instead.

a

Command: 'a' Apply or use a tool, such as pick-axe, key, camera, or break a wand.
Command: 'A' Take off all armor interactively. This can take off armor even if you're wearing other armor on it.
Monster: 'a' Insects: giant beetle, giant ant, fire ant, soldier ant, killer bee, queen bee
Monster: 'A' angelic beings: couatl, Aleax, Angel, ki-rin, Archon
Command: '^a' Repeat previous command.
Command: 'Meta-a' Same as '#adjust'.

a cloud of darkness falls upon you

You failed to learn a spell and are blinded in the process.
You quaffed or got hit by a potion of blindness.

a curse upon thee for sitting upon this most holy throne

You sat on a throne and were blinded (if you have positive Luck) or had your inventory randomly cursed as by the monster spell.

a feeling of loss comes over you

You dipped an uncursed item in a fountain. Had it been cursed, the curse would have been removed.

a few ice cubes drop from the wand

It's a wand of cold.

a freezing mist rises from the water and envelopes the sword

see {freezing_mist}

a lit field surrounds you

Yep, it's a ?oLight.

a pillar of fire strikes all around you

see {pillar_of_fire}

a pillar of fire strikes all around you!

see {pillar_of_fire}

a red glow surrounds your head

You have read a blessed scroll of confuse monster while you were confused.

a shiver runs up and down your spine

Magic trap, no effect this time.

a strange tingling runs up your arm

You dipped an item in a fountain. Nothing happened.

a sudden geyser slams into you from nowhere

see {geyser}

a sudden geyser slams into you from nowhere!

see {geyser}

a trigger appears in a pile of soil

A flying monster flew over a previously unknown land mine nearby. The land mine has a chance of being set of by the "air currents".

a wisp of vapor escapes the fountain

Your wisdom is exercised, and all your attributes are restored to their maximum (same effect as a blessed potion of restore ability). One attribute is increased by 1 (uncursed potion of gain ability effect); if your Luck is 4 or higher, this last effect will increase all your attributes by 1 (blessed potion effect). After this effect, the fountain is no longer magical.

aaargh

see {yasd}

abbot

Eaten: abbot Nutr: 400 Effects: Human Hallucination

absolute beginner's guide

See The Absolute Beginner's Guide for NetHack at [http://www.melankolia.net]

ac

Armor Class. Smaller numbers are better (a la AD&D).
The maximum AC is 127, lowest possible AC is -128. -128 is obtainable only by praying for favors or eating rings of protection.
[https://nethackwiki.com]

ace's law

see {aceslaw}

acehack

NetHack with improved interface! Currently sporting highlighting, no floating eye melee and autoexplore. Written by ais523. In current alpha at [http://www.patch-tag.com]

acehack.de

see {nethack.xd.cm}

aceslaw

A law of #nethack proposed by ais523 and codified by AceSevenFive. It states: "It is impossible to make a statement so stupid it cannot be mistaken forr a Slash'EM Extended feature."
ais523's original suggestion: "you can't distinguish s'ee from a parody of itself"

acid blob

Low-level slow monster with no active attacks, but which can corrode your weapon if you hit it.
The corpse is acidic and does not become tainted.
Acid blobs are vegan.
Eaten: acid blob Nutr: 10 V! Effects: Acidic

acid resistance

protects you, but NOT your equipment, from acid damage.
can only be obtained extrinsically via an alchemy smock (apron unidentified) or yellow dragon scales or scale mail or via polymorph into an acid-resistant monster.
Note: acid resistance protects against the yellow dragon's breath attack (as does reflection), and can save a low level (especially a newer low level) player from near certain death when engulfed by an ochre jelly.
(Also note: like, nobody can resist acid, man...)

acidic corpse

Eating one will cause d15 of damage.

acolyte

Eaten: acolyte Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

acrid fumes

You summoned a djinni from a smoky potion or magic lamp while blind.

ad aerarium

A secret door near this engraving will hold either a teleport to a gold vault or a level teleporter.
Latin, means literally "to treasury"

ad aquarium

A secret door near this engraving will hold a teleport to a slightly soggy gold vault.
Zorkish, means literally "to treasury with eels in it"

ade

see {acehack.de}

adeon

Deliciously finnish.
Caused genodeen to become inaccessible to the general web at its former domain. Some people say he sucks because of this.
His realtime speed record (on NEU, as Sayo) in 01:03: [http://sartak.org]

adjama

A shopkeeper named Adjama will be running a general store.

adom

Another roguelike, no source available.
Standing for Ancient Domains of Mystery, ADOM tends towards a larger, more complicated world than nethack, more like traditional RPGs than Rogue.
The official site is at [http://www.adom.de]

adornment

see {ring_of_adornment}

aethiopica

see {eye_of_the_aethiopica}

agate

A soft orange gem worth 200 zorkmids.

agate ring

An unidentified ring. Cannot be eaten by any monster.

aggravate monster

Intrinsic granted by the appropriate ring, eating a member of your own race or cat/dog (unless orc or caveman), or sacrificing a former pet. Pets go feral twice as fast. If you are not stealthy, sleeping monsters (other than leprechauns, nymphs, and jabberwocks) will always wake up at your approach.

air elemental

Kings of speed (36), air elementals will pummel you with multiple attacks to your one, and are often the unfortunate demise for even high level characters.
If engulfed, try casting charm monster or reading a scroll of taming, as they can be tamed sometimes.
Also, don't forget that the knock spell will let you out of _any_ creature that has engulfed / swallowed you -- but the air elemental might just reengulf you immediately.
The damage done is NOT reduced by AC, but it is by half physical damage.
Other means of escape include: zapping a /oTele at yourself (normally) or the elemental (on no-teleport levels), zapping /oDeath, zapping /oPoly, zapping /oSlowMonster, improvising with a tooled horn, reading a scroll of scare monster, casting cause fear, and so on.

air plane

see {plane of air}

ais523

<ais523> I really like Unity, and think that Vista is the best version of Windows ever

ais523's guide to the planes

[http://www.reddit.com]

ak

see {ascension_kit}

aklys

A thonged club.
No relation to the garment.
Deals 1d6/1d3 damage (small/large monster).

alaex

see {aleax}

alchemy

Dipping one or more potions into another to generate different potions. For example, healing potions dipped into speed create diluted potions of extra healing. Extra healing dipped into gain energy/level create diluted potions of full healing.
If you have a surplus of speed, gain energy or gain level potions, you can dip that surplus into the healing or extra healing potion instead, to convert that surplus into the better healing potion. Also, enlightenment into levitation (or vice versa) has a 2/3 chance of becoming gain level, to further your alchemy with.
If you have (for example) two stacks of healing, one diluted, then to save a potion of speed, you can dilute the undiluted one with water, so that the potions are now in one stack, and can be dipped in one potion.
The potions resulting from alchemy are always created uncursed, unless you count #dipping into a potion of unholy/holy water alchemy.
See also: [http://www.steelypips.org]
Note that some of the seemingly "useless" alchemy formulas in the table, like speed+fruit juice = booze, are sometimes quite useful if their results are smoky in your game. Also, while "sickness+fruit juice=sickness" seems useless, you could use it to turn 1 sickness and 10 fruit juice into 10 sickness, and if sickness is smoky... you get the idea.
In rare cases, you may wish to alchemize for booze if you have reached the planes with no forgotten spells -- but don't bless the booze or it won't work.

alchemy smock

A cloak that provides poison and acid resistance. It also provides MC1.
Has an unidentified description of 'apron'

aleax

An Angelic being with speed 8, AC 0, MR 30%, resists cold, sleep, electric shock, and poison. Does twice 1d6 with weapon and kicks for 1d4.
Can two weapon for 2w+2d6 + 2w+2d6 + k1d4

align

Configuration option. Your starting alignment (align:lawful, align:neutral, or align:chaotic). Cannot be set in-game.

aligned priest

Aligned priests are @. They are found in temples, in sanctum, in some quests and on the Astral Plane. Aligned priests are shock resistant. Their attacks are 4d10 + 1d4 + clerical spellcasting.
If you want to kill an aligned priest, you'd best do it at a distance, or if you really must melee him, converting the altar will get rid of the attacks from that god's wrath, while failed conversions don't anger the priest at all. Be sure to have a ring of free action or a source of MR, as they can paralyze you, which is pretty much a guaranteed (and preventable) death.
Eaten: aligned priest Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

alignment

"Alignment" refers to your standing with your god.
Its initial value is 0 for character classes CPTVW, and 10 for character classes ABHKMRoRaS.
Its maximum value starts at 10 and is increased by 1 every 200 turns (so at T:199, max align is 10, at T:200 max align is 11).
Since alignment is a signed 32-bit integer, the minimum alignment is -2,147,483,648. There seems to be some over/underflow protection (so you can't have +2bil alignment).
The exact formula for maximum alignment is (10+turns/200). In the spoilers, this number is called L. For example, killing your quest leader sets your alignment to -L/2.
To do the quest you must have align >= 20, which means you absolutely cannot possibly do the quest before turn 2000, no matter how many wraith corpses you eat or !oGL you quaff.
For enlightenment messages (Such as You are Devoutly Aligned) and more info, see: [http://www.steelypips.org]

alignment myths

Killing a peaceful in one turn DOES NOT incur special penalty. that's killing them without ANGERING them, something different. --- Chaotics killing an always-peaceful (shk,watch,priest) still get at least -16 alignment from it.

alignment spoiler

[http://sporkhack.org]

alignment terms

Co-aligned: having the same alignment.
Cross-aligned: having different alignments.
Unaligned: (For altars or priests) belonging to Moloch. (For artifacts) not associated with any alignment, so happy with the wielder regardless of his/her alignment.
Aligned: (For altars or priests) belonging to a god other than Moloch. This does NOT mean co-aligned when you farlook an altar on Astral. (For artifacts) associated with one of the three alignments, and hostile to players with other alignments.

allegrohack

AllegroHack is an MS-DOS port of NetHack that uses the Allegro graphics library to provide a fancier graphic interface
[http://www.pinn.net]
the website seems to have moved or been shut down, this interface is no longer developed ( except within the SLASH'EM project )
project revived at [http://www.darkarts.co.za]

alpine conduct

never moving away from any staircase (> or <) or portal (^) more than once before picking up the Amulet, and once after picking up the Amulet.

alt.org

Telnet to nethack.alt.org to play nethack or watch games in progress. I announce game endings in this channel. See scores and stats at [http://alt.org]

altar

Commonly used for #offering fresh corpses (usually not of your own race), #praying for certain favors, 'd'ropping items to get hold of their cursed/uncursed/blessed status. You can raise your luck with it, get non-quest artifacts, get crowned, obtain spellbooks and many many more with those, too.
#offer a corpse on an altar to raise your alignment. If you sacrifice on a noncoaligned altar with positive alignment, there's a chance (yourLevel+2)/(yourLevel+8) you'll convert the altar to be coaligned, but if you have a negative alignment, there's a chance your alignment will change (making the game unwinnable if done before the Quest).
See [http://www.steelypips.org] for complete praying spoiler.
Attempting to engrave or sit on top of one is a good way to get a -1 luck penalty, or a -1 wisdom penalty if the altar is co-aligned.
Luck has no effect on your chances of converting an altar, but it will affect your chances of being confronted by a minion of the god of the altar you converted (or tried to).
If your alignment is negative when you try to convert an altar, you will be converted to the altar's god instead.
Failing to convert an altar incurs a -1 luck penalty.
Being converted to the altar's god incurs a -3 luck penalty.
Kicking an altar is also a bad idea.
conversion chances (XL+2)/(XL+8). See [http://klozoff.ms11.net]
Altars are randomly generated in rooms with a 1 in 60 chance that any regular room in the dungeon will contain an altar.

altars conversion

see {converting altars}

alter

"Alter" means "to change". You probably wanted "altar" instead.

always remember

You just gained 1 to Wisdom from a foocubus.

amaterasu omikami

The Samurai lawful goddess.

amber

A soft yellowish brown gem worth 1000 zorkmids.

amber flash

when you drop a blessed item on an altar, it flashes amber.

amber stone

see {amber}

amethyst

A soft violet gem worth 600 zorkmids.
If dipped into booze, amethyst will turn it into a potion of fruit juice.

amnesia

Can be caused by reading a scroll of amnesia or by having your brains eaten by a mind flayer. Scroll effects follow; those of a mind flayer are similar.
If cursed or not confused, you forget all of the current level. If non-cursed and confused, you forget 6/7 of the current level. If not blessed you also forget any number of spells.
If amnesia causes you to forget the identity of the scroll of amnesia, it will automatically be re-identified for you.

amphibiousness

Allows you to enter water, be undrownable by eels/krakens and fog clouds will deal no damage. You can get this either by devouring an amulet of unbreathing as a metallivore or by polying into a floating eye, water elemental, newt, crocodile or any ;

amplified

"Your health currently feels amplified!" means you gained shock resistance.

amulet

The amulets are: Change, ESP, life saving, magical breathing, reflection, restful sleep, strangulation, unchanging, versus poison, cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor, and the Amulet of Yendor
All amulets have a base price of 150zm except for cheap imitations which are 0zm and the AoY which is 30000zm
Wearing an amulet will increase the rate in which you get hungry.
The appearances of the amulets are randomized: circular, spherical, oval, triangular, pyramidal, square, concave, hexagonal and octagonal

amulet of change

Toggles your gender between male and female.
Disintegrates after changing your gender, does not alter the Polyself(change form) #conduct

amulet of esp

An amulet of ESP gives you extrinsic telepathy when worn and intrinsic telepathy when eaten.

amulet of life-saving

see {amulet of life saving}

amulet of life saving

If you die while wearing one of these, the amulet will be gone, and you will be revived, with full hp, and with -1 to constitution. Cannot revive if you're genocided, or if you were killed by brainlessness from a flayer.
If you were slimed, the process restarts once you're revived.

amulet of magical breathing

Prevents choking and drowning.

amulet of reflection

see {reflection}

amulet of restful sleep

Usually generated cursed.
This amulet causes you to fall asleep every 1 to 100 turns, waking between 1 and 20 turns.

amulet of strangulation

When worn you are strangled to death in 6 turns even if you have unbreathing via eaten amulet or polyself. When eaten you instantly choke with 1/20 chance of survival.
Make sure it's not cursed when you put it on; if it is, prayer may be your only option. And it will be cursed about 90% of the time.
These will NOT auto-curse, so if you know an un-ID'd amulet is uncursed it is safe to put on.

amulet of unchanging

Wearing one of these will prevent you from ever changing form, whether from polymorphing, lycanthropy, or turning into green slime.
If you wear one of these while polymorphed you will never revert to your original form (until you remove it), not even if you are killed.
If you eat one of these while polymorphed, you will instantly return to your original form (pun on "un-changing").

amulet of yendor

The amulet of Yendor, magical talisman of legend, and your quest! Retrieve it from the Dungeons of Doom, for the greater glory of $DEITY!
Wear or wield it while on the planes to give a hint about the location of the next magical portal. Also confers clairvoyance when held.
While in inventory, makes you use more power when casting spells than usual.

amulet versus poison

Amulet that gives you poison resistance when you wear it (or eat it).

amulet versus yasd

Amulet of life-saving

amulet weight

All amulets weigh 20.

amulets

see {amulet}

angband

Another roguelike.
More easily extendable than NetHack, but doesn't have as many interesting interactions.
tends towards many fractured variants, such as ZAngb (Zelanzy-influenced), ToME (Tolkien-influenced), sCthAngband (Cthulhu) and Mangband (MultiPlayer), and over 20 others
The official site is at [http://www.thangorodrim.net]

angel

Speed 10, AC -4, magic resistance 55%, resists cold, sleep, poison and electric shock. Does 1d6 + 1d6 with weapon, claws for 1d4, casts magic missiles for 2d6.

angled poleax

See {halberd}.

angled poleaxe

see {halberd}

anhur

The chaotic god of the Wizard pantheon

anselmus

Some rather good player who probably has too high an opinion of himself at some times, but can be nice as well if you don't annoy him too much. Plus he's usually kidding, anyway[citation needed].

anshar

The chaotic god of the Caveman pantheon.

ant farming

Find a non-coaligned temple.
Convert the altar.
When the priest casts 'summon insects', kill and sacrifice them.
MR, speed, and enough HP to take incidental attacks from the priest are advised.

anthole

Special room. Filled with giant ants, soldier ants or fire ants and food.
Frequency: 1/8, DL 13+.

anti-magic field

An evil trap which can drain your magical energy away, maybe even permanantly
If you have MR, your Pw is not be drained. Instead, you take a small amount of HP damage ("You feel sluggish" if less than 1/4 of your HP, "You feel lethargic" if more, and "You feel unbearably torpid" if you were killed.)

anti-magic trap

Lowers current Power and potentially lowers max Power.

anticlimax

Hang around on a high altar trying to wrest those last few wishes out of a wand
Create and polymorph several acid blobs on the high altar in order to get a few extra points

antigold

Negative gold. Try wishing for 2147483647 gold pieces and then a few more (in wizmode).

antique weapons outlet

A shop. Sells and buys weapons and armor.

anu

The lawful god of the Caveman class.

aoei

likes to cancel her invent on the ascension run and lose astral portal repeatedly while writing and re-blanking scrolls on water
this fierce lady is the number one nethack speedrunner (in the possible future where she reks both luxidream and BilldaCat)
maintains the nethack scoreboard, [https://nethackscoreboard.org]

aols

Amulet of life saving

aosdict

an array of structs of dictionaries, a pretty bizarre data structure
also some guy who develops a variant called xnethack

aoy

see {amulet_of_yendor}

ape

Eaten: ape Nutr: 500

appeasement

[http://web.archive.org]

apple

see also {Core dumped}
Ordinary comestible. Weighs 2, gives 50 nutrition. It is considered vegan food.

apply testing

A relatively new movement in NetHack identification. You apply (that is, break) unknown wands to determine what they are. It's like engrave testing but for pros only.
Remember that you have to be strong enough to actually break the wand (a common problem for new wizards); you need at least 10 str. Also, be wary that every uncharged wand will give "But nothing else happens..." so apply-test them before you are tempted to zap their charges away.
Applying a wand of magic missile will give "You are caught in the magical blast!" and you take some damage unless you have MR.
Applying a wand of striking gives "A wall of force smashes down around you!"
Wands of fire, lightning, and cold create a ball of <element>. Great for the Fourth of July.
Applying a wand of digging is useful even to normies: it creates pits and holes on each square adjacent to you and under you.
Wands of teleport, sleep, cancellation, polymorph, make invisible, speed monster, and slow monster all create a magical blast, then act as if you zapped yourself and every adjacent square with the wand. So that minotaur will become fast, neat!
Applying a wand of undead turning will blast you magically (as usual) and then as an added bonus you shudder in dread. You also get the normal undead turning effect (so your lizard corpse revives).
Applying a wand of light will blind you, but it'll also act as if you zapped it.
The following wands give "But nothing else happens...": nothing, enlightenment, wishing, probing, opening, locking, and secret door detection. The last three have no effect even when standing adjacent to a (closed, open, secret) door.
Applying a wand of death will give "You are caught in the death field!" This will not automatically kill you (even if you are MRless), but it does quite a lot of damage, so watch out!
Applying a wand of create monster will summon a substantial horde even if the wand is at (0:1).

apport

A measure of how well a pet is trained to fetch.
Apport goes up every time your pet eats a treat-class item for its type that you have previously held at some point, and goes down every time the pet drops an item that it carried
High apport means that a pet is more likely to pick up items, and more likely to drop them adjacent to you when it drops them, which is nearly ideal pet-shopping behavior.

apprentice

Eaten: apprentice Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

apron

see {alchemy smock}

aquamarine

A hard green or blue gem worth 1500 zorkmids.

arc

see {archaeologist}

arc skills

Basic: dagger, knife, short sword, dart, attack spells, healing spells, matter spells, riding, two weapon combat. Skilled: scimitar, club, quarterstaff, sling, unicorn horn. Expert: pickaxe, saber, boomerang, whip, divination spells, bare handed combat.

arcane

Now known as Indephysis.

arch-lich

Can cast any of Psi Bolt, Haste Self, Disappear (Invisibility), Destroy Armor, Curse Items, Aggravate, Summon Nasties, Touch of Death and a few more. Has base MR 90. Leaves no corpse.
See also {master lich}

arch-lichen

Arch-lichens are small creatures, very fast, and can do up to 6x9d12 with their numerous touches of death. They are not genocidable, do not respect Elbereth, and cannot be shielded from by #praying invulnerability. Attempting to eat the corpse of an Arch-lichen will cause the server to seek the nearest bones file and polymorph you indefinitely into that individual.
They have AC -78, MR100, and have intrinsic reflection. They are capable of casting the Groping of Death. When not Groping, its attacks brings swift retribution unmatched by even the Riders. Along with disenchantment ability, arch-lichens are THE most formidable monsters in the NetHack bestiary.
Arch-lichens multiply when hit by any weapon or beam, with the new lichen having twice the HP of the old one. They are also capable of summoning demons and insects. They will teleport next to you, even from a different dungeon level, including ones you haven't visited, when the time is "appropriate".
Arch-lichens, or Fwagglebrapo in Quenya, are a deadly race of... things. They were first fwapped into creation by the omnipotent RNG for the sole purpose of executing overtly lucky adventurers. In Its omnipotence, however, the RNG discovered that he had made a creature that even He cannot kill. Naturally, it follows that no divine intervention can protect an adventurer from the wrath of an arch-lichen.
Really bad and rudimentary patch by Nodey at [http://sfcalc.sourceforge.net] ; Windows console compiles for said patch [http://sfcalc.sourceforge.net]
Getting killed by an arch-lichen sets the KILLER variable to "lichen", not "arch-lichen".

arch-pudding

Please don't destroy our galaxy

arch lich

see {archlich}

arch priest

The Priest quest leader.
Eaten: Arch Priest Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

archaeologist

see {archeologist}

archaeologist artifact

see {archeologist artifact}

archeologist

Starts with a touchstone, a bullwhip, a pick-axe, a leather jacket and a fedora. Can two-weapon, and get Expert in pickaxe, sabre, boomerang, whip, and bare-handed combat.
Incurs alignment penalties for: 1) digging up graves (-3), and 2) breaking a historic statue (-1) (e.g. the Oracle's).
Intrinsics: XL1: Speed, Stealth; XL10: Searching.
May use an uncursed touchstone as if it were blessed. (In older versions, they simply started with full gem knowledge.)
Quest artifact is the Orb of Detection, a crystal ball which confers MR, telepathy, half spell-damage and toggled invisibility.
wskill { dagger: B; knife: B; pick-axe: E; short_sword: B; scimitar: S; saber: E; club: S; quarterstaff: S; sling: S; dart: B; boomerang: E; whip: E; unicorn_horn: S }
sskill { attack: B; healing: B; divination: E; matter: B }
fskill { riding: B; two-weapon: B; bare-handed: E }
Archeologist rank titles: Digger (xplvl 1-2), Field Worker (3-5), Investigator (6-9), Exhumer (10-13), Excavator (14-17), Spelunker (18-21), Speleologist (22-25), Collector (26-29), Curator (30)
Eaten: archeologist Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

archeologist artifact

The Orb of Detection

archlich

see {arch-lich}

archlichen

see {arch-lichen}

archon

A candidate for the game's most dangerous non-named creatures, Archons will ruin your day with great speed, stunning/blinding attacks, and a storm of summoning. In a crowd of dangerous creatures, always aim for the Archon first.
Considered by many to be the best pet possible.
Wields weapons, wears shields, amulets, gloves, boots, and hats.
Guaranteed to have a shield of reflection, and a demonbane/sunsword/+3 rustproof longsword.
This is why you don't want to over-genocide: [http://alt.org]

archonstorm

What happens when (typically on the Plane of Fire, but it can also happen on Air) an Archon summons another Archon, who in turn summon more Archons, until you die. Best to prevent one starting, by using a fast portal detection method and avoiding excessive genociding.
An example, on the Plane of Fire: [http://i.imgur.com]

archrobin

A RoundRobin account for players who can ascend reliably. Don't mess up the ascension rate.

ardjawinangun

A shopkeeper named Ardjawinangun will be running a delicatessen.

aristotle7

see {aristotle73}

aristotle73

Notorious pudding farmer. Infamous for an Astral Plane death by stoning.

armor

[http://www.steelypips.org]

armor class

Armor class affects the chance of your being hit. The lower it is, the harder it is for an opponent to hit you. Ways to lower your armor class are to wear nondamaged armor with a nonnegative enchantment, buying protection from a priest (for 400*xp_level to 600*xp_level-1 zorkmids), getting protection from your god (by #praying at an altar with high enough luck and telepathy, speed, and stealth), or casting the protection spell.
You can also improve your armor class by wearing a ring of protection.
Other ways of not getting hit (besides AC) are invisibility and displacement.
Armor affects monster's to-hit roll against you - the value of your AC is added to their to-hit roll, unless your AC is less than zero, in which case a random number between 0 and your armor class is added to their to-hit.
Further, if your AC is less than zero, a random number between 0 and its magnitude is subtracted from any physical damage dealt. Non-physical attacks still deal normal damage.

armor spoiler

see {armor}

armor store

Armor stores are run by shopkeepers named: Demirci, Kalecik, Boyabai, Yildizeli, Gaziantep, Siirt, Akhalataki, Tirebolu, Aksaray, Ermenak, Iskenderun, Kadirli, Siverek, Pervari, Malasgirt, Bayburt, Ayancik, Zonguldak, Balya, Tefenni, Artvin, Kars, Makharadze, Malazgirt, Midyat, Birecik, Kirikkale, Alaca, Polatli, and Nallihan.

armor weight

All DSMs: 40. plate mail: 450. crystal plate mail: 450. bronze plate mail: 450. splint mail: 400. banded mail: 350. dwarvish mithril-coat: 150. elven mithril-coat: 150. chain mail: 300. orcish chain mail: 300. scale mail: 250. studded leather armor: 200. ring mail: 250. orcish ring mail: 250. leather armor: 150. leather jacket: 30. all shirts: 5.

arrow

Your basic arrow. Deals 1d6 damage to all enemies (ignoring bow bonuses). Costs 2 zorkmids, weighs 1. Often generated in piles.

arrow damage

see {missile_damage}

arrow keys

They are evil and want you dead.

art

Aspiring xenolinguist.

artefact

see {artifact}

artifact

A magical item, often given by gods, or as your quest item. see {quest}
There can only be one of each artifact. You can't wish for your own quest artifact.
Quest artifacts are intelligent. You can only pick them up if you are either the same alignment, or it is your quest artifact.
If you pick up an artifact that is different from your current alignment, you will be blasted. For intelligent artifacts, 4d10 (2d10 if MR), for others, 4d4 (2d4 with MR)
Non-intelligent artifacts won't always blast you.
See also: [http://www.steelypips.org]

artifact blast

An artifact blast does 4d10 damage, or 2d10 with magic resistance (unintelligent artifacts use d4s instead, and do no damage 3/4 of the time).

artifact invocation

see {#invoke}

artifact spoiler

[http://www.steelypips.org]

artifacts

see {artifact}

ascend

see {ascension}

ascension

Another term for winning the game of NetHack, ascending to demigod/goddess -hood.
umopepisdn's alias on NAO. Very high ascension rate (coincidence?).
For spoilers, also see Maniac's Ascension Guide, located at [http://homepage.mac.com]
If you are going to ascend, please bring some more Potions of Booze, we are running dreadfully low up in Heaven.
The Second Law of NetHack states that the first game after your first one of these, you will die to a newt or a grid bug

ascension.run

Multi-variant public server, situated in Germany, it also hosts a clone of NAO's NetHack. Formerly known as nethack.dank.ninja, nethack.xd.cm and acehack.de.
Discussions and death reports in freenode's #ascension.run - come say hi!
Play now: ssh nethack@ascension.run or [[https://ascension.run]]

ascension crash

Just as you thought nothing could be more frustrating than dying on the Astral Plane...

ascension guide

see {maniac}

ascension kit

All the little fiddly bits your character has to carry in order to ascend. Usually includes a dragon scale mail, speed boots, gauntlets of power (or dexterity), and something to kill tough dudes with.
Must include some combination of GDSM, SDSM, amulet of reflection, shield of reflection, cloak of magic resistance, or a magic resistance granting quest artifact such that the player has both magic resistance and magic reflection.
The bare minimum is: magic resistance, a unicorn horn, good AC and HP, some food, some way to eliminate monsters (weapons, spells, pets), and a way to uncurse your equipment.
reading a blessed or uncursed scroll of gold detection while confused or reading a cursed scroll will identify traps on the level, including portals. This is a good way to locate the portals on the elemental planes. If you want to do this for all levels you need four of them, plus any backups you think you might need.
There's a thorough guide at [https://nethackwiki.com]

ascension run

This segment of the game is very challenging. You have to type _<.< as fast as you possibly can in order to reach the planes.
Actually this is the part of the game from the point when you kill Rodney / steal the book to the time you ascend. i.e. the final stage. Obtain book, obtain ammy, escape, do planes, win.

ascension streak

The number of ascensions in a row. The highest streak is 29 by Adeon. Current streaks can be found here: [http://alt.org]

ascention

see {ascension}

ashikaga

see {ashikaga_takauji}

ashikaga takauji

The Samurai quest nemesis, guardian of the Tsurugi of Muramasa.
Be very careful when meleeing this guy. The Tsurugi has bisected many a promising hack.
[http://alt.org] -- Don't let this happen to you.
Suggested methods of dealing with him include: zapping with a wand of death, immobilizing with sleep or paralysis (careful with zapping sleep, has a 40% chance to resist based on MR), polyself into a black dragon, killing from within a boulder fort.

asidonhopo

A shopkeeper, made famous for being the example of shopkeeper naming in the NetHack sources as well as the typical shopkeeper in Dudley's Dungeon.
NetHack's second-most popular shopkeeper, right behind Izchak. Seriously, this guy is everywhere.

asking questions

[http://www.catb.org]

asmodeus

A lawful demon prince that primarily attacks with cold.
Good alternative to Demogorgon for farming.

aspersions

What that imp done said about my mama?!
Oh snap! I know he just di'int!

assbanes

All the artifact weapons that god may throw at your feet that, due to only doing double damage against a specific, small class of monsters, are next to worthless
Alternatively, you might want to check the entry on {Assbane}, the artifact weapon that does damage against asses.

astral call

see {call bug}

astral call bug

see {call_bug}

astral plane

The last level of the game, where you have to #offer The Amulet to your god.
There are three altars on the astral plane - lawful, neutral, and chaotic. Each altar is guarded by a rider. The altars are in a random order each game. If you don't want to escape in celestial disgrace, you must #offer the amulet on the co-aligned altar!
WARNING: Using the ; command to find an altar is an "aligned altar" does *not* mean it is the *same* alignment as you, just that it *has* an alignment (i.e. is not an altar to Moloch). You must stand on the altar and press : to find out the alignment of the altar. This is not a bug.

astral vision

Granted by wearing the Eyes of the Overworld, the monk quest artifact. Gives you x-ray vision with radius 3 that bypasses blindness.

astraltv

A channel on termcast which plays recordings of players ascending or dying on the Astral Plane.

athame

A sacrificial dagger. Does not get dull when used for engraving, unless it is cursed. Master liches and arch-liches have a chance of carrying one.
Engraving Elbereth with a non-cursed athame takes only one turn.
Master liches have a 6% chance (6/91), while arch liches have a 22% chance (2/9). Arch L athames also have a 25% chance of being fooproofed.
As an added bonus, Arch L athames have a 1/260 chance of being Magicbane :)
Damage is 1d4/1d3. As a dagger it has +2 to-hit.

atheist priest

For further details, see: [http://www.nuklearpower.com] and [http://www.nuklearpower.com]

athena

The lawful goddess of the Healer's pantheon.

attack

see {Attack_Spells}

attack spells

In this group (with their levels) are: force bolt(1),drain life(2),magic missile(2),cone of cold(4),fireball(4),finger of death(7)
Expert: Wizard. Skilled: Barbarian, Knight, Samurai. Basic: Archaeologist, Caveman, Monk, Valkyrie.

attendant

Eaten: attendant Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

autodig

Configuration option. Automatically dig if you're wielding a digging tool and moving into a place that can be dug.

autopickup

Configuration option. Automatically pick up things onto which you move.
Non-selective autopickup is not recommended. If you're going to use it, specify pickup_types as well. $!/="+? is generally safe.

autopickup exceptions

This option allows you to use wildcard masks to micromanage autopickup behavior. Common entries include "<*life saving*" and ">*load*".

autoquiver

Configuration option. Automatically quiver some suitable weapon if your quiver empties when firing.

averted death

That fortunate player had his/her life saved by an amulet of life saving.

axe

see {axe_damage}

axe damage

(Damages are shown as S/L for "small/large" monsters.) axe: 1d6/1d4. battle-axe: 1d8+1d4/1d6+2d4.

b

Command: 'b' Without number_pad: Go one step in southwest.
Command: 'B' Without number_pad: Go southwest until you hit a wall or run into something.
Monster: 'b' blobs: acid blob, quivering blob, gelatinous cube
Monster: 'B' bats/birds: bat, vampire bat, giant bat, raven

baalzebub

A relatively large demon lord with guaranteed generation in his lair. He isn't terribly difficult though, and has no real debilitating attacks that you wouldn't expect. Otherwise he's as tricky as a typical demon lord.
He can stun you if you aren't blind.
He has a devil put aside for you.
Level 41, AC -5, MR 85, speed 9, base XP 2311, difficulty 45 (from Monster Manual). Attacks include a strength-draining poison bite and stunning gaze.

baby black dragon

Eaten: baby black dragon Nutr: 500

baby blue dragon

Eaten: baby blue dragon Nutr: 500

baby crocodile

Eaten: baby crocodile Nutr: 200

baby dragon

Do not have breath attack, and do not leave scale mail.
Base level: 12. Baby dragons are never randomly generated.
Eaten: baby dragon Nutr: 500

baby gray dragon

Eaten: baby gray dragon Nutr: 500

baby green dragon

Eaten: baby green dragon Nutr: 500 Effects: Poisonous

baby long worm

Eaten: baby long worm Nutr: 250

baby orange dragon

Eaten: baby orange dragon Nutr: 500

baby purple worm

Eaten: baby purple worm Nutr: 250

baby red dragon

Eaten: baby red dragon Nutr: 500

baby silver dragon

Eaten: baby silver dragon Nutr: 500

baby white dragon

Eaten: baby white dragon Nutr: 500

baby yellow dragon

Eaten: baby yellow dragon Nutr: 500 Effects: Acidic

bad breath

1/30 chance to happen when fountain quaffing, monsters on the level flee you for a while.

bad feeling

You have just applied a cursed figurine and summoned a hostile monster.
Alternately, you have just committed cannibalism while polymorphed.

bad ideas

<Porost> I wielded the unihorn to uncurse it with remove curse
Eating a Quantum Mechanic as a monk.

badwiki

see {wikia}

bag

A bag is either a bag of holding, bag of tricks, or oilskin sack (all worth 100 zorkmids) or else a plain old sack (worth two zorkmids). To ID: Price check for a sack, #loot for a bag of tricks, get slightly burdened and put things into the bag to see if your encumbrance changes (bag of holding), and if nothing matches, it's an oilskin sack.

bag of cancellation

"What you get when you drop a wand of cancellation into a bag of holding. See also: bohsplosion.

bag of cancellation?

What happens when you drop a wand of cancellation into a bag of holding. See also: "bohsplosion".

bag of holding

see {BoH}

bag of kittens

See West Virginia.

bag of tricks

A magical bag which when applied will create random monsters.
Bites you when #looted. doing 1d10 physical damage.
Can be recharged indefinitely, cancelling sets charges to 0 although remains as a bag of tricks.
Unlike wands you cannot wrest the last charge out of a bag of tricks.

bag throwing

Throwing a bag can break any potions inside, unless it's a bag of holding. You have been warned!

bags

see {bag}

balrog

A very slow moving demon that is very powerful in combat(8d4+4d6). Does not summon more demons. Also generated with a bullwhip and a broadsword.
As a demon, it is hurt by silver. Nevermind the fact that it is pure flame and evil.

baluchitherium

An extinct relative of the rhinoceros, believed to be the largest land mammal that ever lived. In nethack, just a big 'q'.
Eaten: baluchitherium Nutr: 800

bamboo arrow

see {ya}

banana

Food. Weighs 2 and is worth 80 nutrition (40 nutr/weight).
Counts as a treat for all Y (but will not tame wild ones)

banded mail

Lowers AC by 6 and weighs 350.
It's made of iron.

banshee

It warns you when you have low health.

bar

see {barbarian}

bar skills

Basic: dagger, saber, flail, quarterstaff, bow, riding, two weapon combat. Skilled: pickaxe, broad sword, long sword, scimitar, club, mace, morning star, spear, trident, attack spells. Expert: axe, short sword, two handed sword, hammer. Master: bare handed combat.

barbarian

RAAAGH! The Barbarian is the quintessential fighter (and a poor spellcaster). A good choice for beginners. Barbarians can achieve Expert skill in axes, pick-axes (but only in <= 3.4.2; skilled in 3.4.3), two-handed swords and hammers.
Barbarians also start out with poison resistance, helping them to find more to eat in the early game than most classes.
Barbarian rank titles: Plunderer/Plunderess (xplvl 1-2), Pillager (3-5), Bandit (6-9), Brigand (10-13), Raider (14-17), Reaver (18-21), Slayer (22-25), Chieftain (26-29), Conqueror/Conqueress (30)
Intrinsic abilities: 1: Poison res; 7: Speed; 15: Stealth.
Barbarians may only become skilled in attack spells
The Heart of Ahriman is the barbarian quest artifact.
Eaten: barbarian Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

barbarian artifact

The Heart of Ahriman

barbed devil

Base Level 8 / Speed 12 / AC:0 / MR:35 / 2d4 2d4 3d4Sting - Resistant To Fire/Poison
Lawful demon, making random generation impossible in Gehennom, so these are never randomly generated. May be summoned by other lawful demons, and are also found in the sanctum and Baalzebub's lair.

barbie

see {barbarian}

bardiche

A poleaxe with 2d4 versus small and 3d4 versus large. Its unidentified appearance is a long poleaxe.

barks

Possible response by a canine pet when #chatted: indicates not hungry.

barracks

Special room. Contains soldiers, sergeants, lieutenants and captains. Level sounds include blades being honed, loud snoring and dice being thrown.
Frequency: 1/4, DL 15+.
Will not be randomly generated if soldiers are genocided or extinct.

barrow wight

Speed 12, AC 5, MR 5%, resists cold, sleep and poison. Does 1d4 damage.
The barrow wight also has a drain level attack.
A barrow wight almost always carries a long sword. These are not automatically generated cursed.

basic

+0 to hit, +0 to damage. (-7 to hit, -3 to damage when two-weaponing.)
Takes 20 hits and one experience level to advance to basic skill.
-1 to hit when riding, +1 to bare-handed damage, +3 to martial arts damage.
To advance from unskilled to basic in riding, it takes 2000 turns riding a creature and one experience level. To go from unskilled to basic in bare-handed or martial arts damage, it takes 20 hits and one experience level.
To advance to Basic skill in a spell school, you need 20 "use points" worth of successful castings; a level N spell gives N "use points" when cast.

bat

Corpse isn't poisonous, but it stuns you.
Eaten: bat Nutr: 20 Effects: Stun (30)

bat from hell

The Bat from Hell is a Slash'EM-specific artifact that does d8+20 damage against small monters, and d6+20 damage against large monsters, even before enchantment (and has +3 to hit). By comparison, a +7 Grayswandir does 1d8*2+14, which is typically less.

batteries have not been invented yet

You have a dimming brass lantern in your inventory, and you are hallucinating

battle-axe

see {axe_damage}

bdsm

"The High Priestess of Moloch picks up a bullwhip. --More--"
"The High Priestess of Moloch removes a blessed robe."
"The High Priestess of Moloch reads a scroll of punishment."
Black Dragon Scale Mail. Provides genuine disintegration resistance.
Blue Dragon Scale Mail. Provides shock resistance.

beaked polearm

see {bec-de-corbin}

beam

Beam-type spells have a range of 6 to 13 squares and will not bounce off of walls. See also "ray".
Zapping a beam upwards or downwards essentially reduces the range to 1 square.

bear trap

Jumping out of bear traps will wound your leg.
If you trigger one, you will NOT be trapped if you are polymorphed into any of the following: acid blob, blue/spotted/ochre jelly, small/large/giant mimic, fog cloud, yellow/black light, gray ooze, brown/black pudding, green slime, jellyfish, any vortex, air/fire elemental, or wraith
Also, tiny monsters: giant/soldier/fire ant, killer/queen bee, giant beetle, chickatrice, homunculus, imp, leprechaun, sewer/giant/rabid/were rat, cave spider, centipede, grid bug, xan, bat, garter snake, newt, gecko, iguana, or lizard
Trying to move diagonally is guaranteed to get you out of the trap in 4 to 7 turns. If you try to move only horizontally or vertically, you're at the mercy of the RNG (it can take over 35 turns!)
Although heavy, it can be carried when disarmed and deployed by applying it. This is useful for hunting unicorns.
If you pet is caught in one, you can use #untrap to remove it from the trap.
If you fail, you will harm your pet.

beartrap

see {bear_trap}

bec-de-corbin

A polearm that deals d8 damage versus small, d6 versus large. Its unidentified appearance is a beaked polearm.
Weight 100, cost 8, material iron.

bec de corbin

see {polearm}

beehive

Special room. Contains killer bees and a queen bee, and several lumps of royal jelly. Level sounds include low buzzing and angry drone.
Frequency: 1/5, DL 10+.

beginner

Characters that have never achieved 2000 score points (or 1000 if a wizard) are classified as beginners.
By the game itself. We're not judgemental.

beginner's guide

see {absolute_beginner's_guide}

beginners

see {absolute_beginner's_guide}

beginners guide

see {absolute_beginner's_guide}

being confused,_you mispronounce the magic words...

You read a scroll while confused.
That was a cursed scroll of confuse monster, but being confused already it gives no message and doesn't auto ID. Adds 1d100 turns to confusion status.

bell

When applied, a cursed bell has a chance of summoning a nymph with no inventory. This feature stops working entirely as soon as a single species of nymph has become extinct or genocided.
If you find a bell on a grave with the text "Saved by the bell", it's not that rare. The bell is a normal bell.
Ringing a bell also wakes up nearby monsters.
It also calls pets. (Not teleports them to you, as is the case of a magic whistle.)

bell of opening

To get this, you'll have to finish the quest assigned to you by your quest leader.
Stand on the vibrating square, light the non-cursed Candelabrum of Invocation (need 7 candles, which can be cursed), then ring the non-cursed Bell of Opening. Follow that up with reading the non-cursed Book of the Dead within several turns to open the path downward
Other than the obvious use, when applied, a blessed bell of opening will cause you to be expelled if swallowed, will unlock and open nearby doors and containers, find secret passages, open drawbridges, and make you unpunished. Uncursed, you will be expelled, and it will act as a /oSecret Door Detection. Cursed, you won't be expelled and you will summon undead and wake nearby monsters.
The Bell's non-obvious use is rather useful in Moloch's Sanctum to find the hidden door. Remember - it only will find things in your visual range.

berbek

A shopkeeper named Berbek will be running a delicatessen.

best splat ever

[http://alt.org]

bgf

Blessed greased fixed: standard procedure when wishing. One exception is magic markers; you'll generally want those uncursed so you can write cursed scrolls.

bhaak

<bhaak> I'm not a nutritionist!
bhaak is teh sux

bhmc

bhmc means Barbarian-Human-Male-Chaotic.

big room

see {bigroom}

bigroom

Be prepared for a swarm of monsters upon entering the bigroom. Fight on the stairs, going up to heal when necessary. Being invisible also helps reduce the swarm.
The Big Room has a 40% chance of existing in any given dungeon, and is located between levels 10 and 12 of the Dungeons of Doom.
The Big Room is a symbol of frustrated and nihilistic existential angst. The monsters really counterpoint the /je ne sais quoi/ of the underlying metaphor, and harshly silhouettes the fundamental humanity of the designer's soul.
Conflict is nice here too.

bill-guisarme

A polearm with 2d4 damage versus small, d10 versus large. Its unidentified appearance is a hooked polearm.
Weight 120, cost 7, material iron.

billdacat

Holder of the current gametime ascension, 2130 turns, as SpeedyCat7 on NAO.
[http://alt.org]

black dragon

Eating a black dragon corpse gives resistance to disintegration.
Its breath also disintegrates. Reflection is a good defense against this.
Eaten: black dragon Nutr: 1500 Intrinsic: Disintegration: 100%

black dragon scale mail

Black dragon scale mail drops AC by 9 and provides disintegration resistance while not hindering spell casting.
Weighs 40.

black dragon scales

Drops AC by 3 and provides disintigration resistance. Can be transformed into black dragon scale mail with a scroll of enchant armor.
Weighs 40.

black flash

You dropped a cursed item on an altar

black light

These (always invisible) "creatures" explode when they come near you, causing hallucination if not blind or not having resistance against it. (See Grayswandir)

black market

Slash'EM/Slash'EM Extended/Unnethack feature. The black market is a large shop that is accessed by a portal.
The black market is run by One-Eyed Sam and his small army (by NetHack standards) of assistants.
Items in the black market cost 15 times more than normal (25 times for artifacts.)
One-Eyed Sam is generated with much of an ascension kit (well-enchanted gray dragon scale mail, speed boots, shield of reflection, amulet of life saving) as well as the deadly sword Thiefbane.

black naga

Speed 14, AC 2, Magic resistance 10%, Resists poison, acid and stoning, and its corpse can give poison resistance. Does 2d6 damage in melee and can spit acid.
The corpse is acidic.
Eaten: black naga Nutr: 400 Effects: Acidic Intrinsic: Poison: 53%

black naga hatchling

Eaten: black naga hatchling Nutr: 100 Effects: Acidic Intrinsic: Poison: 20%

black onyx ring

An unidentified ring. Cannot be eaten by any monster.

black opal

A rare hard black gem worth 2500 zorkmids.
In the main dungeon, black opals usually won't be seen above dungeon level 13.

black pudding

Their bite will corrode any iron or bronze armor you are wearing, and they also corrode iron weapons used to attack them. Attacking a black pudding in melee with iron will split it into two puddings, if its hp is at least 2.
These are significantly more dangerous than brown puddings, as they have twice as many hitpoints and do 3d8 damage per attack (while brown puddings do not inflict any damage). However, a sufficiently low armor class makes black pudding farming a safe and profitable activity (see 'pudding farming'); plus, they're a lot easier to create than brown puddings.
Eating a black pudding corpse may grant you cold resistance, poison resistance, or shock resistance.
They qualify as meat. Veggie conduct players beware!
Level 10, speed 6, AC 6. 22% chance of granting cold, shock, or poison resistance.
Eaten: black pudding Nutr: 250 Effects: Acidic Intrinsic: Cold: 22%, Shock: 22%, Poison: 22%

black unicorn

Eaten: black unicorn Nutr: 300 Intrinsic: Poison: 27%

blade damage

(Damages are shown as S/L for "small/large" monsters.) dagger: 1d4/1d3. elven dagger: 1d5/1d3. orcish dagger: 1d3/1d3. silver dagger: 1d4/1d3. athame: 1d4/1d3. scalpel: 1d3/1d3. knife: 1d3/1d2. stiletto: 1d3/1d2. worm tooth: 1d2/1d2. crysknife: 1d10/1d10.

blades being honed

Barracks on this level.

bland

"For some reason, that tasted bland." - Eating a [master] mind flayer corpse when you are already at maximum intelligence will give you this message.
Cram rations, C-rations, and K-rations also taste bland (as long as they are not cursed).

blend into the floor

You dropped a ring of stealth down a sink.

bless

see {holy_water}

blindcoder

Managed to get a royally ass-kicking Wiz-Elf-Mal-Cha killed on the Plane of Air by forgetting to bring a ring of conflict.
ascended: Val-Hum-Fem-Law, Rog-Hum-Mal-Cha, Bar-Hum-Mal-Cha, Kni-Hum-Fem-Law, Sam-Hum-Mal-Law
If I were a NetHack monster, I would be a unicorn. Most people are only after one thing - I try to maintain a quiet and respectful distance until I feel sure that I can trust someone.

blindfold

A tool which you can (a)pply to blind yourself. Useful when you have telepathy.

bludgeon damage

(Damages are shown as S/L for "small/large" monsters.) mace: 1d6+1/1d6. morning star: 2d4/1d6+1. war hammer: 1d4+1/1d4. club: 1d6/1d3. rubber hose: 1d4/1d3. quarterstaff: 1d6/1d6. aklys: 1d6/1d3. flail: 1d6+1/2d4. bullwhip: 1d2/1d1

blue and green shield

see {elven_shield}

blue dragon

see {dragon}
Eaten: blue dragon Nutr: 1500 Intrinsic: Shock: 100%

blue dragon scale mail

Blue dragon scale mail drops AC by 9 and provides shock resistance while not hindering spell casting.
Weighs 40.

blue dragon scales

Drops AC by 3 and provides shock resistance. Can be transformed into blue dragon scale mail with a scroll of enchant armor.
Weighs 40.

blue jelly

Effectively a stronger version of the brown mold.
Eating its corpse can grant cold resistance or poison resistance.
If a blue jelly inflicts enough [passive] damage, it will multiply.
The corpse is vegan.
Eaten: blue jelly Nutr: 20 V! Intrinsic: Cold: 13%, Poison: 13%

boc?

See "bag of cancellation."
see {bag of cancellation}

body armor

What follows is the (base AC reduction/weight) of each type of body armor, ripped shamelessly from the Guidebook and source code:
dragon scale mail (9/40), plate mail (7/450), crystal plate mail (7/450), bronze plate mail (6/450), splint mail (6/400), banded mail (6/350), dwarvish mithril-coat (6/150), elven mithril-coat (5/150), chain mail (5/300), orcish chain mail (4/300), scale mail (4/250), dragon scales (3/40), studded leather armor (3/200), ring mail (3/250), orcish ring mail (2/250), leather armor (2/150), leather jacket (1/30)
Monks wearing any of the above will suffer a -20 to-hit penalty, will not deal staggering blows, and will lose their weaponless to-hit bonus (2 + xplev / 3).
No, body armor does not include cloaks, shirts, boots, shields, gloves, or helmets. Monks can wear those just fine.

body armors

see {body_armor}

bofh

Simon Travaglia, the Bastard Operator From Hell - [http://bofh.ntk.net]

boh

Bag of holding. Objects in a blessed, uncursed, or cursed bag of holding weigh one-quarter, one-half, or twice as much respectively.
Opening a cursed BoH will cause each item to have 1/13 chance of vanishing.
Putting a wand of cancellation, a bag of tricks or another BoH into a BoH will cause the bag to explode, and all items in it will be gone.
Putting a container containing one of the dangerous items into a BoH has a chance of causing the bag to explode.
Zapping a wand of cancellation at a bag of holding will not destroy it, but will un-curse it (if applicable), not affecting the contents.
See {nesting} for how to stuff a BoH in a BoH.

boing

see {boing!}

boing!

A monster has just zapped you with a wand of striking while you were magic resistant.
A wand of striking hit something that resisted.
Or you zapped Force Bolt at something that resisted it, e.g. yourself with MR.

bone devil

A generally unremarkable demon often found in Gehennom.

bones

Level on which a previous character has died, and which gets loaded into a new game for a new character to encounter, complete with the ghost of the former adventurer and their belongings.
If you die on a level that is eligible to leave bones, the chance of your doing so is dependent on the depth of that level: 1-(1/(1+(DL/4))) (0 above level 4, 1/2 if on level 4, 3/4 on level 12)
You will NOT leave bones if you died while swallowed or engulfed. There's a 1/3 chance of bones files being loaded if one exists for the level you are entering. If a bones file is loaded, it is then deleted, and will not be used again.
The probabilities for saving bones (existing bones files will not be overwritten) 1-3:0 4-7:1/2 8-11:2/3 12-15:3/4 16-19:4/5 20-23:5/6 ... 44-48 11/12
Items in the inventory of the dead character each have an 80% chance of becoming cursed. Items that were inside containers are unaffected regardless of whether the container is cursed.
[http://www.steelypips.org]

bones stuffing

The deliberate placement of bones (usually to aid oneself with a particular conduct or achievement) by gathering items you wish to have in a game, then killing yourself on a level just before entering it with another character.

book of dead

see{book_of_the_dead}

book of the dead

The Book of the Dead is the third and final artifact of the invocation, always held by the Wizard of Yendor. Try to kill him over land so that it doesn't fall in his moat upon his death.
Stand on the vibrating square, light the non-cursed Candelabrum of Invocation (need 7 non-cursed candles), ring the non-cursed Bell of Opening, then read the non-cursed Book of the Dead to open the path downward.
Other then the obvious use, a blessed book of the dead, when read, will tame any co-aligned undead, and cause other nearby undead to become peaceful and flee. If uncursed, there is no effect beyond a random message. If cursed, corpses in your inventory will be revived, eggs will be rejuvenated, and some undead will be summoned.
Reading the cursed Book of the Dead is a great way to get your pet purple worms to level 50
Reading this never violates illiterate conduct. It's what you won't think to use when surrounded by liches on Astral.

book store

Book stores are run by shopkeepers named: Skibbereen, Kanturk, Rath Luirc, Ennistymon, Lahinch, Kinnegad, Lugnaquillia, Enniscorthy, Gweebarra, Kittamagh, Nenagh, Sneem, Ballingeary, Kilgarvan, Cahersiveen, Glenbeigh, Kilmihil, Kiltamagh, Droichead Atha, Inniscrone, Clonegal, Lisnaskea, Culdaff, Dunfanaghy, Inishbofin, and Kesh.

boomerang

a quite rare weapon, when thrown, will curve in a circle to the right, returning to you. good for exersising DEX, but can hurt you if you don't catch it
Does not return to you if it hits something, since it will land on the ground after hitting something.
Has a +4 to-hit bonus.
It circles clockwise.

boots

There are ten types of boots in the game. Low boots (walking shoes), high boots (jackboots) and iron shoes (hard shoes) have the same appearance each game. Elven, kicking, fumble, levitation, jumping, speed and water walking boots have their unidentified descriptions randomized per game: mud, buckled, riding, snow, hiking, combat, and jungle boots.
All of the randomized boots are organic (can rot from brown P attack) except for kicking boots, which are metal.
Elven and kicking boots are cheap; base price 8. Fumbling and levitation boots are 30 zorkmids, and almost always cursed. Speed, water walking, and jumping boots are 50 zorkmids, and do their job just as well if cursed.
The randomized descriptions of the boots can also give other effects. For instance, boots with the un-id'd description of "snow boots" will keep you from slipping and making noise while on ice, and "riding boots" give you a riding bonus.

boots of jumping

see {jumping_boots}

boots of levitation

see {levitation_boots}

boots weight

low boots: 10. iron shoes: 50. high boots: 20. speed boots: 20. water walking boots: 20. jumping boots: 20. elven boots: 15. kicking boots: 15. fumble boots: 20. levitation boots: 15.

booze

see {potion of booze}

bos

Boots of speed; they're actually called "speed boots", but NetHack will also accept "boots of speed" for wishing.

boss behavior

The following monsters in nethack are considered bosses for the purpose of strange behavior: The Wizard of Yendor, purple Ls, Vlad the Impaler, Demon lords and princes and the Quest Nemesis
Bosses in nethack have 3 forms of movement, teleporting next to you, teleporting to the upstairs and escaping upstairs
All the bosses listed above are covetous, which means they will steal one or more of the following: The Amulet of Yendor, your quest artifact, the book of the dead and the Candelabrum

bot

Although other roguelikes have had bots that could play them (most famously, angband), nobody has managed to make a bot that can ascend in nethack yet.
However, many attempts have been made. Actively developed bots include Sartak et al's TAEB and canidae et al's saiph. See their respective Rodney entries for more details.
Most NetHack bots use the valkyrie role for its simplicity.
Sartak maintains a list of bots and some information about each at [http://taeb.github.io]
Also BoT is the common TLA for the bag of tricks.
Saiph derived bots name every monster with a unique incrementing number, in order to distinguish between them. Otherwise they would be unable to focus fire.

bot abuse

see {rodney_abuse}

bot cmds

see {bot commands}

bot commands

A brief list of some important commands. !pom - moon phase. !date - Server date. !seen user. !hsn x - x's highscore. !lastgame - more info. !rc x - x's config. !dumplog x - URL of x's last death. !players - online now. !gamesby x - x's statistics. !deathsby x - URL for x's deaths.
!scores x - URL for x's games in top 2000. !plr x - URL for x's player page with links to games, config, ttyrecs, etc.
Full list (including triggers) at [http://alt.org]

bot help

To see Rodney's commands, visit [http://alt.org] or lookup 'bot_commands'

botd

see {book_of_the_dead}

botl updates

Makes it so the bottom line (i.e. status line) does or does not update. If set to false, #updatestatus forces an update.

bots

see {bot}

botscummer

see {botscumming}

botscumming

A method of cheating whereby you use a computer program to completely automate your players actions because you're too lazy or unskilled to do them yourself.

boulder

A dungeon feature, blocking your way. An integral part of the "rolling boulder" trap. Can be pushed around if there's nothing behind it, exercising strength. You can slip past one if you have very little in inventory. Can also be destroyed with a force bolt spell, wand of striking, or pickaxe, yielding a pile of rocks.
Configuration option. Set the character used to display boulders. Set this to 0, for example, when doing sokoban.
Boulders are so heavy, that only H are capable of lifting them.
If you push a boulder onto the stairs and throw objects, except for rocks, such that they land on its square (e.g. gold), the boulder will eventually fall down (3% chance per object). This can occasionally be useful.
Wishing for a boulder while standing on the downstairs may also cause it to fall.

brain food

"Yum! That was real brain food!" - Eating a [master] mind flayer corpse has a 50% chance of increasing your INT by 1 point.

brainlessness

A mindflayer's tentacle attack may lower intelligence. If your base intelligence goes below 3, you die. A dunce cap will lock it at 6, keeping you safe. A ring of sustain ability will also protect you. However, nothing will protect you from forgetting levels and items.

brass lantern

Light source, weighs 30 (50% more than an oil lamp), and can last from 999 to 1499 turns. A blessed scroll of charging will refill them to 1500 turns, uncursed scroll will add 750 turns (to a max of 1500). Potions of oil have no effect on a Brass Lantern.
Keep in mind that the PYEC acts as a charging source.

brass ring

An unidentified ring. *CAN* be eaten by rock moles and xorns.

breadknife

See the following RGRN link for more details: [http://groups.google.com]

breaking wands

see {wan2}

brettcar

Part of the dgamelaunch development cabal.

bribe

see {bribery}

bribery

You can bribe a member of the Yendorian army (soldier, sergeant, lieutenant, or captain) by throwing gold at him. You cannot bribe watchmen or watch captains.
No matter how much you throw, there's always a constant 1 in 3 chance of failure.
The amount you have to throw is modified by mercenary type (soldier: X=100, sergeant: X=250, lieutenant: X=500, captain: X=750), your current visible gold, your experience level, and charisma.
The exact formula is: X + (visible gold + experience_level*Y)/charisma, where Y is a random integer on [0,4]. If you've thrown over this amount (and had succeeded in the constant 33% failcheck) you'll pacify the mercenary. Note that visible gold is calculated after the thrown gold has left your inventory.

brigit

The neutral goddess of the Knight pantheon.

broad pick

see {dwarvish mattock}

broad short sword

see {short_sword}

broadsword

see {sword_damage}

bronze plate mail

Copper body armor, AC6, MC1, weight 450, cost 450. Big AC boost, very heavy. Needs a cloak for MC. Doesn't rust, otherwise worse than regular or crystal plate mail. Dwarven mithril is strictly superior.

bronze ring

An unidentified ring. *CAN* be eaten by rock moles and xorns.

brown mold

Non-moving fungus that doesn't have any attacks, but does 1d6 cold-based damage if you hit it in melee.
Eating its corpse has a 3% chance of granting either cold or poison resistance.
If a brown mold inflicts enough [passive] damage, it will multiply.
Eaten: brown mold Nutr: 30 V! Intrinsic: Cold: 3%, Poison: 3%

brown pudding

Their attack will rot any 'organic' armor you are wearing (i.e. anything leather or cloth or wood), and attacking one with anything made of iron will cause it to split in half.
Unlike their black cousins, brown puddings do ZERO damage when they bite, making them an optimal choice for pudding farming with a poor AC. (see 'pudding farming').
Eating a brown pudding corpse may grant you cold resistance, poison resistance, or shock resistance, but its corpse is acidic!
Level 5, speed 3, AC 8. 11% chance of cold resistance, 11% of poison resistance, 11% of shock resistance and 67% of nothing.
Eaten: brown pudding Nutr: 250 V Effects: Acidic Intrinsic: Cold: 11%, Shock: 11%, Poison: 11%

brrooaa

Getting spat out of an engulfer in a mob, can't find a square, you land in the nearest clear square away from the engulfer.

brushed your

Variants are "You think something brushed your $FOOT." Just sacrificed, increased luck, and are blind.

brushed your foot

see {brushed_your}

buc

short for Blessed, Uncursed, Cursed.

buckled boots

Either the unidentified elven, kicking, fumble, levitation, jumping, speed or water walking boots.

bug

polying monsters to no head should also make them have no neck and amulets fall off
if your pet is invisible, and you cant see invis, and you move into it (move not fight), it will say "Pardon me, petname" identifying the invisible creature as your pet.
you can escape a beartrap by digging

bugbear

Base speed 9, AC 5, MR% 0, hits for 2d4 in melee.
Contrary to popular belief, does not have a grab attack and is not known as a hugbear.
Eaten: bugbear Nutr: 250

bugle

Musical instrument that wakes nearby soldiers, and can be used to play the tune at the castle gates if you haven't become one of the uncivilized that just knocks the door down.

bugs

Do not add bugs that you find to this entry. Rather, submit them to the DevTeam at www.nethack.org. By putting bugs you find in this entry, you are not helping one bit. The DevTeam does not check this channel.
The way to do this is using the "Contact Us" link at the top of the website for the current version of nethack.
If you found the bug on NAO, for the drop down menu "NetHack came from", select "Our 3.4.3 source release, but modifed." The bug that you found should be reported in the Messages section. Before you add this, make SURE that it already hasn't been added already.
NAO's hardware is as follows: 2x3.06GHz Xeon with 4GB RAM, 250+ Gb. The software: Debian Linux, gcc 2.95.4, self-compiled. Patches (to be put under Software) include: menucolors, hpmon, sortloot, dump, dgamelaunch mail, extinct & showborn.

bullwhip

Can be applied to attempt to disarm monsters, if your DEX is at least 15 (6 for Arcs) and you're not confused or fumbling.
Apply downwards while levitating to pick up things on the ground. This may hit your steed instead.
By applying toward "furniture", boulders, or large monsters (will anger peacefuls), you can haul yourself out of pits.
Can be [a]pplied downwards to retrieve items from moats or pools (the first application brings the item to the surface; the second brings the item to you, if you are levitating). Requires DEX

burdened

A method of killing yourself by carrying too much and dropping your speed. You lose 1/4 of your speed. If this doesn't sound bad, consider - you will not be able to outrun many monsters, and monsters will tend to do 33% more damage.
Also, -1 to hit.
Also consider that summoned monsters (e.g. master mind flayers) may get an attack before you get a turn.

burns

see {erosion}

but nothing else happens

"But nothing else happens..." You (a)pplied an empty wand.

but wait

see {amulet of life saving}

but wait...

see {amulet of life saving}

c

Command: 'c' Close a door.
Command: 'C' Name an individual monster, ex. baptize your pet.
Monster: 'c' Run away! Run away! Chickatrices and cockatrices stone, while pyrolisks can be quite dangerous to your inventory.
Monster: 'C' Centaurs. Plains, forest, and mountain are the three types of centaurs in the game.
Command: '^C' Panic button: quit the game.
Command: 'Meta-c' Same as '#chat'.

c-ration

Food. Weight: 10. Nutrition: 300. Takes 1 turn to consume. Does not break vegan conduct.

cadu

cadu is a newbieish nethack player
...who has ascended! (twice) :P
Ascended : V , B

caitiff

"You caitiff!" You are a lawful knight who has struck a monster which is sleeping, paralyzed or fleeing. -1 alignment.
You were lawful and tried to survive.
Also being a lich and hitting a ghost.
If you use ranged combat, including spells, your alignment record will be unaffected.

calamarain

Reasonably experienced NetHack player, and author of the Angband webcomic "Tales from the Pit"
Tales from the Pit is found at [http://angband.calamarain.net]

call bug

This was a bug in previous versions of NetHack. If you tried to (C)all one of the high priests on the Astral Plane, the game would lovingly identify the alignment of the priest. This bug was fixed in version 3.6.0.

camaxtli

The neutral god of Archeologists.

camera

see {expensive camera}

camping

Creating monsters on or near an altar, and then slaughtering them
Consort with foocubi to increase your max power.
If you are chaotic, you can sacrifice your own race to increase the # of foocubi
Happy Camping

can of grease

Use it to grease items.
Weighs 15, generated with up to 25 charges.
Always grease your bag and cloak when you find one of these. Seriously.

cancelable monsters

The following monsters can be made far less dangerous by either a wand or the spell of cancellation:
Chickatrices and cockatrices (MR 30) cannot stone you with their hissing attack but touching the trice (or corpse) still petrifies.
Ghouls (MR 0), shades (MR 0), cubes (MR 0), eyes (MR 10), and guardian nagas (MR 50) cannot use their paralysis attacks.
Rust monsters and disenchanters (both MR 0) lose their special abilities.
Nymphs (MR 30) become plain nymphs and cannot steal things.
Spellcasters (MR varies) lose the ability to cast spells. Especially useful on certain quest nemeses, since most of them have a low MR.
All standard dragons (D, MR 20) lose their breath ability ("<monster> coughs").
Demons (most &, of varying MR) can't do their bring-in-some-friends routine once cancelled.
Similarly, werefoo can't summon help if you cancel them; additionally, they get stuck in whatever form they were in when cancelled.
Xans (red x) can't prick and injure your legs.
Green slimes (P, MR 0!) cannot slime you by touching you (although their corpses are just as deadly to eat).
Foocubi get a "severe headache" and won't have sex anymore.

cancellable monsters

see {cancelable monsters}

cancellation

Can be used to remove curses, enchantments, and otherwise nullify your equipment.
see also [http://www.steelypips.org]
It's a bad idea to put a wand of cancellation into a bag of holding, see {boh} for other dangers
Uses for cancellation include cancelling your inventory and nullifying enemies' special attacks. While cancelling yourself nullifies your inventory, this isn't the case for cancelled monsters.

candelabrum of invocation

To get this, kill Vlad.
If non-cursed, it will act like a light source (will burn as long as the first candle applied to it). If cursed, it won't light. If snuffed at the wrong moment, it will never light again. Hope you did the Invocation first!
Apply the non-cursed Candelabrum (with 7 candles attached) while standing on the vibrating square, then ring the non-cursed Bell of Opening and follow it up with reading the non-cursed Book of the Dead within several turns to open the path downward.

candidate

A beginner monk. If you find one, then you've encountered a doppelganger. (See also: monk)

candle

A primitive light source. Can be applied for a light radius, which goes up for every 7th power of candles you have lit, starting with 1 (1, 7, 49, etc).
You need 7 of these to win the game, so might want to pick them up when you pass minetown...
You can, if necessary, wish for up to 7 candles with a 100% success rate (assuming non-negative luck). But it sucks to have to do that, so even if there's just 5 or 6 in Izchak's, you might find the rest you need later, or you could polypile for them.
Tallow candles will burn for 200 turns. Wax candles will burn for 400 turns.

candy bar

Candy bars weigh 2 and have a nutrition of 100.
Beware! They are not for the lactose intolerant. (In other words, they break the vegan conduct.)

cannibal

"You cannibal!" This means you just ate a monster of your own race. Orcs and cavemen are exempt from this. Confers aggravate monsters intrinsic and decreases luck by 2 to 5.

cannibalism

see {cannibal}

capslock

You won't thank yourself.

captain

Eaten: captain Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

carafe

Essentially, a potion container.

carnivorous ape

Similar to an ape, but hits slightly harder. More importantly, it can grab you and prevent you from getting away.
Attack 1d4 1d4 bearhug 1d8, speed 12.
Eaten: carnivorous ape Nutr: 550

carrot

Eating one cures blindness, but does not help when creamed or envenomed.
Considered vegan food. Weighs 2 and gives 50 nutrition.

carrying capacity

Carrying capacity is determined by 25*(strength+constitution)+50. Strength of 18/xx maps as follows: 18/01-18/31 = 19, 18/32-18/81 = 20, 18/82-18/** = 21.

casting failure

see {spell_failure}

casting prob

see {spell_failure}

castle

This is the lowest level of the dungeons of doom, located between the 25th and 29th levels.
The level is no-teleport, and cannot leave bones. It counts as a graveyard level.
Do *not* fill all the trapdoors on this level, because you need to get deeper, and you cannot dig holes in the floor. If you do fill the holes by mistake, you can still levport down from the castle to get below.
If you have any musical instrument, you can play a little game of "mastermind" to open the drawbridge. Stand next to the moat and align yourself with the drawbridge, then (a)pply the instrument and choose (n) for improvisation. You'll be prompted to enter a 5 letter combination (A-G), and for every right letter in the wrong space, you hear a tumbler click, and for every right letter in the right space, a gear turns.
Do not fight while standing on the drawbridge. It is possible for the drawbridge to be destroyed and cause instant death to the player. Casting force bolt while standing on the drawbridge destroys it.
A simple tune strategy is to try aaaaa, bbbbb, ... ggggg - and write down the number of gears per note. You now know how many of each note is in the tune.
Now - for each position, try playing each note in turn that it could be, padding the rest with x - till you get gears grinding indicating you've found that note.
repeat for each position - only trying notes that you have not eliminated.
This is not optimal - but will lead to the right tune in at most 26 moves
In one corner of the castle, there is a chest containing a wand of wishing. The four storerooms contain armour, weapons, gems and food. Check the armour/weapons before wishing - you might find what you need in there and save a wish.

catch

You're surrounded by monsters while a mail demon tries to hand over a message.

catches and drops

Can't throw gems to pet unicorns.

catname

Configuration option. Name of your starting cat (ex. "catname:Morris"). Cannot be set in-game.

cause fear

Same effect as reading an uncursed scroll of scare monster. You will cause monsters within your visual range to flee. Some monsters can resist (based on monster level and MR). "You hear maniacal laughter in the distance." (no creature affected) No message otherwise.

cav

see {caveman}

cav skills

Basic: dagger, pickaxe, morning star, attack spells, unicorn horn. Skilled: knife, axe, flail, hammer, polearms, javelin, trident, bow, matter spells. Expert: club, mace, quarterstaff, spear, sling, boomerang. Master: bare handed combat.

cave spider

An early game monster that conveys poison resistance without poisoning!
It's only a 7% chance, but there is no risk (unless it's old, of course...)
Eaten: cave spider Nutr: 50 Intrinsic: Poison: 7%

caveman

Ugh! The caveman is a primitive warrior class. They may achieve Expert skill in clubs, maces, slings, spears, quarterstaves and boomerangs; and master in bare handed combat. They may not use two-weapon combat. They are either lawful or neutral, depending on your race.
They are allowed to practice cannibalism.
Caveman rank titles: Troglodyte (xplvl 1-2), Aborigine (3-5), Wanderer (6-9), Vagrant (10-13), Wayfarer (14-17), Roamer (18-21), Nomad (22-25), Rover (26-29), Pioneer (30)
Intrinsic abilities: 7: Speed; 15: Warning.
can be Lawful Dwarf / Neutral Gnome / Lawful or Neutral Human
Cavemen (or women) may attain basic skill in Attack spells and become Skilled in Matter spells. Their special spell is dig--if you manage to cast it, you have won something.
Their quest artifact is the Sceptre of Might.
Eaten: caveman Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

caveman artifact

The Sceptre of Might

cavemen

see {caveman}

cavewoman

see {caveman}

cavewoman artifact

see {caveman_artifact}

celestial disgrace

You offered the Amulet of Yendor to the wrong deity.
[https://groups.google.com]

centaur

Centaurs come in 3 varieties, in order of difficulty: plains centaur, forest centaur and mountain centaur.
50% of the time plains and mountain centaurs have a crossbow and crossbow bolts, forest centaur has a bow and arrows.

centipede

Speed 4, AC 3, can grant poison resistance, does 1d3 poison damage.
They will not, however, cause the reduction in strength usually associated with eating poisonous corpses.
Eaten: centipede Nutr: 50 Intrinsic: Poison: 13%

cerberus

A monster present in the source code but never used in the game. Intended for gehennom.

ch

see {charisma}

cha

see {charisma}

chain mail

Lowers AC by 5 and weighs 300.

chameleon

Diff 7, Lvl 6. Eating one will polymorph you.
The RNG decrees that your weak pets will avoid eating the corpse of this creature, while your strong pets will ignore everything else until they have consumed it.
You may like to tame chameleons while they are in an easily-tameable form (cat, dog, pony, etc.). In any event, a tame arch-lich would be better than a hostile arch-lich.
if a chameleon is in gremlin form and spawns new gremlins, those will be shapeshifters too.
If you get killed by a shapeshifter then the game will say you got killed by the shapeshifter's current form unless you're wearing a ring of protection from shape changers.
Eaten: chameleon Nutr: 100 Effects: Polymorph
[http://www.youtube.com]

chaotic

See [https://nethackwiki.com] for advantages and disadvantages

chaotic artifact weapons

Grimtooth, Orcrist, Sting and Stormbringer are the chaotic artifact weapons. You can get all of them by #offering.

character

Configuration option. Pick your type of character (ex. "character:monk"). Synonym for role.

charging

see {scroll_of_charging}

charisma

Charisma (Ch:) lowers the monetary requirements for shopping and bribing, makes foocubi seducing you and nymph charming you less likely to succeed, and increases the chances of something good happening when laying with foocubi.
Racial limits are 16 for dwarf and orc, and 18 for other races. This can be increased and exceeded by rings of adornment. Charisma, along with intelligence, cannot be exercised.
Charisma can be increased up to racial maximum via the "Magic Trap Boogie".
For shopping purposes, charisma values multiply the sale price by the following factors: 3-5 - 200%, 6-7 - 150%, 8-10 - 133%, 11-15 - 100%, 16-17 - 75%, 18 - 67%, 19+ - 50%

charm monster

see {scroll of taming}

charon

A monster present in the source code but never used in the game. Supposed to be for a river Styx in gehennom.

cheap plastic imitation of the amulet of yendor

This is not the greatest amulet in the world, no. This is just a tribute.
Hey, it's free polypile fodder. Might get a "oLS or "oR out of it.
You can also use it to mark the Vibrating Square.
Also good as a curse-catcher or nymph-distracter.

cheapy

see {cheapy}

cheat

To automagically receive the Amulet of Yendor, enter 'Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A' at the title screen.
For 'Level Select' press: Up, Down, Left, Right, A, Start. If you hear a ring collection noise, you have done this correctly, else you'll have to keep trying

cheating

infravision

checkpoint

Configuration option. Save game state after each level change, for possible recovery after program crash.

chenkar

A neutral human Teenager.

chest

Thing you open. Things inside. Lockable. Unlockable. Destroyable. It's a chest, FFS.
May be trapped. Contrary to popular belief, chests are no more likely to explode if there is a wand of wishing inside.

chewing

"You hear chewing." A monster ate something (lizard corpse or acidic corpse) to avoid stoning, but you could not see it.

chickatrice

A baby cockatrice, still very dangerous, but slightly slower than the grown up form. The corpse is every bit as deadly, however.
.. That includes touching it.
Level 4, speed 4.
During the new moon malus, the hissing of a chickatrice will begin the stoning process unless you have your trusty lizard corpse in your main inventory.
Eaten: chickatrice Nutr: 10 Effects: Petrify Intrinsic: Poison: 27%

chieftain

Eaten: chieftain Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

chih sung-tzu

The neutral god of Monks.

choke

NetHack's way of telling you that you're an idiot who's not paying attention.
YASD: What can happen if you eat when satiated and your nutrition after eating is greater than or equal to 2000. If you don't have magical breathing or unbreathing (the normal case) you will die with a probability of 95%. Else you will vomit.
Usually when eating while satiated you will get prompted whether you want to continue or not, except if the first bite takes you over the choking limit.
Or if you're eating a wraith corpse. A very common YASD.

choked on a very rich meal

You ate money, and choked to death.

choking

see {choke}

chromatic dragon

The cavepeople's quest nemesis.
Resistances: fire, cold, sleep, disintegration, electricity, poison, acid, petrification; MR of 30.
Resistances conveyed by eating: fire, cold, sleep, disintegration, electricity, poison
Attacks: Breathes random type: 6dx; Random magic spell with nominal damage of (level/3+1)d6; Steals the amulet etc. ; Bite: 4d8; Bite: 4d8; Sting: 1d6
Eaten: Chromatic Dragon Nutr: 1700 Effects: Poisonous Intrinsic: Fire: 17%, Cold: 17%, Sleep: 17%, Shock: 17%, Poison: 17%, Disintegration: 17%

chromatic dragon scale mail

<Eidolos> It should also give power regeneration and half damage.

chronology

NetHack was first released on Jul 28th, 1987, according to Google[TM]'s usenet archive.
Hack, the ancestor of NetHack, appears to have been first released on Dec 17th, 1984, according to Google[TM]'s usenet archive.
For the curious, the first mention of Rogue (the inspiration for many, many games) was first mentioned in Google[TM]'s usenet archive on August 21st, 1981, with the blurb: "The famous D&D game - screen oriented - halts almost all useful work."
Rogue's first major appearance was in the 4.2 version of BSD UNIX. The game was designed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman in 1980, and was one of the first wide-spread programs to use the relatively new "curses" graphical display library.

chrysoberyl

A soft yellow gem worth 700 zorkmids.

chugging sound

Some intelligent monster drank a potion.

citrine

A rare soft yellow gem worth 1500 zorkmids.
In the main dungeon, citrine usually won't be seen above dungeon level 4.

clairvoyance

Clairvoyance maps a 20*11 area of the map, centered on the player. It has a 1/2 chance of doing this every 15 turns that you are clairvoyant. You can become clairvoyant by:
Donating 200*XL to (400*XL)-1 to any priest, as long as this amount is greater than one-third of current visible gold. See {donate} for more info.
Casting the spell of clairvoyance maps as you cast the spell. Skill level unimportant. Unlike other sources of clairvoyance, this is the only one that has no duration.
Wearing a cornuthaum if not a wizard blocks clairvoyance. Wearing a cornuthaum as a wizard confers clairvoyance.
Carrying the Amulet of Yendor will grant clairvoyance if it's not blocked.

claneit

[http://claneit.org]

clay ring

An unidentified ring. Cannot be eaten by any monster.

clear potion

Unidentified description of potion of water.

cleaver

This Neutral battle axe is the Barbarian's first artifact. +d3 to hit and +d6 damage

clerical

see {Clerical_Spells}

clerical spells

In this group (with their levels) are: protection(1),create monster(2),remove curse(3),create familiar(6),turn undead(6)
Expert: Priest. Skilled: Knight, Monk, Samurai, Wizard.

clippy

Please see Clippy the NetHack Shopping Assistant for all your price-ID questions: [http://nethack.roy.org]
Also, see {nethack_helper}
Clippy use guide: Put in the *symbol* of the item (e.g. ? for a scroll, = for a ring) under Type, and leave Description blank for best results.

cloak

Cloaks cover shirts and body armor, there are 12 types:
Mummy wrapping (AC:0, MC1), Orcish (AC:0, MC2), Dwarvish (AC:0, MC2), Leather (AC:1, MC1), Displacement* (AC:1, MC2), Oilskin (AC:1, MC3), Alchemy smock (AC:1, MC1), Invisibility* (AC:1, MC2), Magic resistance* (AC:1, MC3), Elven (AC:1, MC3), Robe (AC:2, MC3), and Protection* (AC:3, MC3).
*The appearance of these cloaks is randomized each game from the following four options: tattered cape, ornamental cope, opera cloak, and piece of cloth.

cloak of displacement

see {displacement}
It's crap. AVOID. 99.03% of interviewed players agree.
<Hotroot> I just lost 3 levels to a Wraith
In 3.6, provides MC1.

cloak of invisibility

Makes the wearer invisible. Provides MC2.

cloak of magic resistance

Cloak which costs 60, weighs 10, appears with relative probability 2, provides 1 point of AC, is made of cloth, and provides magic resistance and MC3. Like other magic items, its unidentified appearance is random.

cloak of protection

Cloak that decreases AC by 3 and provides magic cancellation level 3.

cloak weight

mummy wrapping: 3. robe: 15. leather cloak: 15. all other cloaks: 10.

closed for inventory

There is a shop behind this locked door. Do not break it down unless you are prepared to deal with angry shopkeepers or feel like dying.
To open these doors, use the spell "knock", a wand of opening, a lock pick, a skeleton key, or a credit card.

closet

A dead-end one-square corridor. Can contain a trap; see {vlad_was_here}, {ad_aerarium}

clove of garlic

see {garlic}

clover

see {four-leaf_clover}

club

1d6 vs small, 1d3 vs large, costs 3 zm and is made of wood.

clump of sticks

If a priest tries to summon insects, but all insects have become extinct/genocided, they will instead transform a clump of sticks into snakes.
If the priest casts at a clump of sticks, but nothing happens, then that means all of the species of snake are extinct or genocided.

clvl

Character level (experience level; see also xplvl).

cmdassist

Configuration option. NetHack provides some additional command assistance when it detects some anticipated mistakes.

co

see {constitution}

coarse mantelet

see {orcish cloak}

coatl

see {couatl}

cobra

Eaten: cobra Nutr: 100 Effects: Poisonous Intrinsic: Poison: 40%

coc

see {cone_of_cold}

cockatrice

One of the most interesting (read: dangerous) monsters in NetHack. Coming into contact with one, or hearing its hissing, may cause delayed stoning death ("You are slowing down.") or instant stoning death ("You turn to stone.") to players and monsters.
You have two turns to eat lizard meat or acidic food, or quaff a potion of acid, or #pray. You lose any intrinsic speed. Carry lizard corpses for this. During a new moon, hissing attacks always succeed unless you carry lizard corpses.
There are 47 cockatrice-related ways to be petrified. Of these, only 13 involve a live cockatrice. Touching a cockatrice corpse in any way can be immediately fatal. When you eat or are hit by a cockatrice egg, delayed stoning begins.
Instantly die to a corpse! Get hit by a monster wielding one; fall downstairs, on a sink or in a pit while wielding one; try to eat one (beware inventory slots like 'e', 'n', 'y'); kick one without boots; or without wearing gloves: pick up, wield, bag or unbag, tin, #offer, or feel on the floor while blind. And More.
Instantly kill monsters! Tame cockatrices, conflict cockatrices, wield a corpse, throw eggs, or polymorph into one and let monsters hit you. There is no delayed stoning for monsters; non-resistant monsters are killed right away.
Genociding c can save you from some of these deaths. However, since the corpses are so useful in a tight or congested spot, it's often not a good idea. Note that if you wish for a corpse with c genocided, you'll get a random corpse instead.

cockatrice egg

A fun tactic is to find a safe place, polymorph into a (female) cockatrice, and lay a bunch of eggs. Shove them into a sack before they hatch, and keep them there until they stack when taken out. Wield and smack monsters for petrifying fun!
You can also throw or use a sling if you need to, but this has a much higher chance of missing.
They can be safely handled without wearing gloves, as all the nastiness is in the yolk.
Not recommended people food.

cockatrice nest

Special room. Contains cockatrices and statues.
Frequency: 1/8, DL 17+.

cockatrice song

Never hiss at a cockatrice / No you can't get friendly with a cockatrice / If you only knew, he will hiss at you / and you'll find yourself soon turning into a statue

color

Configuration option. NetHack should display color if it can for different monsters, objects, and dungeon features.

color hp monitor

see {hpmon}

colored streaks

see {streaks}

combat boots

Either the unidentified elven, kicking, fumble, levitation, jumping, speed or water walking boots.

combat wombat

A character that relies on fighting and not magic.

common sense

Sometimes applicable in nethack. Mostly useless otherwise.

comr

Cloak of Magic Resistance
CoMR is MC 3
It has 1 base AC, and can become rotten and/or burned.

con

see {constitution}

conduct

see {#conduct}

conducts

The 12 conducts in NetHack 3.4.3 are being a pacifist, being vegetarian, following a strict vegan diet, never eating any food, never hitting with a wielded weapon, being an atheist, never wishing for any items, never wishing for any artifacts, being illiterate, never changing form, never polymorphing items and never genociding a species.
Further details can be seen at [http://www.steelypips.org]
Some players also enjoy playing unofficial conducts: [https://nethackwiki.com]

conducty1

A twelve conduct, 5420 turn, 1h 55m 58s ascension on NAO. See [http://sartak.org]
He hit a bones pile that helped.

cone of cold

Level 4 attack spell. Special spell of the valkyrie.
At unskilled and basic levels, this spell does 6d6 damage in a straight line, as a wand of cold.
At skilled or expert level however, this spell creates a blast of cold 3x3 squares in diameter, within 10 squares and in sight. Subsequent explosions (2-9) will follow within the original target area.
The cone of cold will deal extra damage to fire resistant creatures, and may also freeze potions within your inventory. You have been warned!
Requires 20 energy.

config editor

see {nao_rc_editor}

config file

see {configuration}

configuration

The config file is .nethackrc for *nix, defaults.nh for windows/DOS. Options in config file are set with OPTIONS=foo[:bar], where foo can be preceded with ! or no to turn it off, if it's a boolean, and bar is an optional value, if non-boolean.

confirm

Configuration option. Have user confirm attacks on peaceful creatures.

conflict

Usually gained via ring of conflict, this will make monsters attack each other, and also you. This includes peaceful and tame monsters.
Make sure to get rid of this before you enter a shop or temple, unless you can take the shopkeeper or priest. :)
The conflict intrinsic makes you consume 1 additional point of nutrition on every even turn, except if granted by an artifact.

confuse

see {how_to_get_confused}

confuse monster

A scroll of confuse monster will allow you to confuse the next monster you hit, or the next 2-9 monsters you hit in the case of a blessed scroll.
If the scroll is cursed, or if you are polymorphed into a monster, the scroll will confuse you instead.
A spell of confuse monster acts as an uncursed scroll if the caster's skill is unskilled or basic, and as a blessed scroll if skilled or expert.

confused bear

see {roaring_of_a_confused_bear}

confusion

Confusion is a status effect that affects your ability to move around and stops you doing many things. Not as bad as stunning, still a nuisance. Cures: non-cursed unicorn horn; lizard corpse (reduction in timeout); waiting. Some scrolls behave differently when confused; this can be Useful. Appears as 'Conf' on statusline.
Causes: Potion of confusion, booze; cursed scroll of confuse monster; cast forgotten spell; eggs, tripe, cursed tins; cursed unicorn horn; read cursed or hard spellbook; Magicbane; umber hulks; Yeenoghu; clerical monster spells; thrones; fail to use crystal ball; magic mapping non-mappable level.
Effects: may move randomly; no confirm for attacking peacefuls; engraving impaired badly; scrolls have different effects; no spellcasting; 1/3 chance destroying read spellbooks; no multiple shots; no instrument use; no mounting steed; worse riding; no Mjollnir returns; wisdom abuse.

conical hat

Either an unidentified dunce cap or an unidentified cornuthaum. If you're not a wizard, don't bother. If you're a wizard, don't bother either.

constitution

Constitution (Co:) affects healing speed, extra hitpoint gain every level, and carrying capacity. Carrying capacity = [(Strength + Constitution)/2]+1. Also has a few subtle effects such as reducing the chance of "system shock" when polymorphing.
Dwarves can reach 20 con intrinsically, while elves can achieve 16. All other races get 18 as the max.
Hitpoint gain bonuses in format of [Constitution]=(Bonus): [3]=(-2). [4-6]=(-1). [7-14]=(+0). [15-16]=(+1). [17]=(+2). [18]=(+3).
Exercised by: not being hungry; hit by a nurse; *cubus "raised to your full potential"; digesting as an engulfing monster.
Abused by: fainting from exertion or hunger; extensive encumberance; sick or vomiting; drinking contaminated water or "no good water" from fountain; falling onto weapon on sink; hit by Ill monster; lycanthropy; hit by Famine; *cubus "drained of energy"; hit by silver arrow when silver-fearing; polymorphing; throne electricity; poison needle or gas; hit by lightning.

consultation

see {oracle}

contaminated

"This water is contaminated!" - a message you can get from drinking from a fountain. If you are poison resistant, you lose d4 HP; if not, you lose d10 HP and d4+2 STR and abuse your constitution.

convert

If you convert to another alignment before you've done your quest, the game becomes unwinnable, and the best you can do is escape the dungeon with The Book and The Candelabrum.
Helm of Opposite Alignment doesn't help, as your quest leader detects your real alignment through it.
Conversion happens when you attempt to convert an altar (by doing #offer) while your alignment is negative.
Conversion also happens when offering a unicorn of your alignment on an altar of another alignment.

converting altars

Never try to convert an altar by sacrificing a unicorn aligned to that altar, or when your alignment is negative. Various bad things are likely to happen.
Your odds of *failing* to convert are 6 in (xplvl + 8). So at xplvl 1 you have a 33% chance of succeeding, at xplvl 4 a 50% chance, and at xplvl 16 a 75% chance. At xplvl 30 you have an 84% chance of conversion.
You cannot convert an altar that is in Gehennom. Attempting to do so will get your god VERY angry at you, on top of a -5 penalty to luck. So watch it.
Attempting to convert an altar may summon a minion of the altar's original god, but only if you are at least level 7 and have high alignment. The probability varies, but is never greater than 1/4.

convulsive ravings

You are on the oracle level.

cope

The cope is a liturgical vestment which may be worn by any rank of the clergy. Copes are made in all liturgical colours, and are like a very long mantle or cloak, fastened at the breast by a clasp.
See ornamental_cope

copper ring

An unidentified ring. *CAN* be eaten by rock moles and xorns.

coral ring

An unidentified ring. Cannot be eaten by any monster.

core dumped

A message you will get when eating an apple or a pear on a *nix.

cornucopia

see {horn of plenty}

cornuthaum

Its unidentified appearance is 'conical hat', which it shares with the dunce cap. When worn by wizards, it results in clairvoyance and +1 to charisma. When worn by non-wizards, it blocks clairvoyance and drops charisma by 1.
Cornuthaums can be enchanted at +5 or below by wizards without being vaporized. Thus its maximum safe enchantment is +7. It weighs 4 and costs 80. It also provides MC2, even if you are not a wizard.
Apparently, the name "Cornuthaum" for a wizard's pointy hat was made up by the developers, as the word does not appear in the (large, multivolume) Oxford English Dictionary. It is apparently derived from the prefix "cornu-", meaning a horn, and the same "thaum" as is found in "thaumaturgy" and is of Greek origin. (In short, "cornuthaum" means "miracle horn".) Thus, it is likely pronounced "kor-nuu-thoum"

corpse

see {corpses}

corpse spoiler

Eating Corpses for Food and Intrinsics: [http://www.geocities.com]

corpses

Initial and final effects of eating corpses along with chances for intrinsics: [http://www.geocities.com] mirrored at [http://runc1ble.org]

corwin

"I knew RZ personaly, I'm not asking who he was..."

couatl

Level 8, speed 10, AC 5, MR 30. Poisonous bite deals 1d3 and drains strength, and crushes for 2d4.
Caution: can drown you if they're over water.
Is the only "nasty" that cannot be genocided.
<omniscientist> ...making it impossible for the summon nasties spell from ever being made ineffective outside Gehennom.
(And it won't anyway, as it will simply summon random monsters if the monster it would have chosen is genocided.)
And it's spelled with a 'u', unlike the end of the lawful Archeologist god.

cough

A dragon or other monster will cough if it is cancelled but tries to use its breath weapon.

coughs

see {cough)

coughs spasmodically and collapses

A monster attempted to swallow Pestilence.

count

see {repeat_command}

courtly conversation

see {throne room}

covetous

see {covetous_monsters}

covetous monsters

The following creatures desire your quest artifact: Rodney, your quest nemesis
The following creatures desire the Book of the Dead: master lichs, arch-lichs, Orcus, Rodney
The following creatures desire the Candelabrum of Invocation: Vlad the Impaler, Rodney
The following creatures desire the Bell of Opening: Rodney
The following creatures desire the Amulet of Yendor: Rodney, all demon lords and princes (see {demon_lords})
None of these creatures can be tamed. They will attempt to steal any items they covet from you, and will pick them up if found on the ground.

coyote

see {coyote_names}
Eaten: coyote Nutr: 250

coyote names

Latin coyote names: Carnivorus Vulgaris, Road-Runnerus Digestus, Eatibus Anythingus, Famishus-Famishus, Eatibus Almost Anythingus, Eatius Birdius, Famishus Fantasticus, Eternalii Famishiis, Famishis Vulgarus, Famishius Vulgaris Ingeniusi, Eatius-Slobbius
Hardheadipus Oedipus, Carnivorous Slobbius, Hard-Headipus Ravenus, Evereadii Eatibus, Apetitus Giganticus, Hungrii Flea-Bagius, Overconfidentii Vulgaris, Caninus Nervous Rex, Grotesques Appetitus, Nemesis Riduclii, Canis latrans
You're guaranteed to get the last one if the coyote is cancelled.

cpm

Crystal Plate Mail.
Not to be confused with the operating system CP/M.
(Which has slightly worse AC.)

cram

see {cram_ration}

cram ration

A "people food". It costs 35 zorkmids, weighs 15, is worth 600 nutrition, and takes 3 turns to fully consume.
Does not break vegan.

crapbane

see {foobane}

crash!

A potion or other fragile object broke.

crassworm's hole

see {crassworm's_hotel}

crassworm's hotel

Four steps to a damage-free hideout: 1. Tame engulfing monster (doesn't have to be corporeal). 2. Put on ring of conflict. 3. Get engulfed by your new pet. 4. Remove ring of conflict.
To check out: zap a wand of opening, polymorph your pet, teleport yourself or your pet, cast knock, ring the charged Bell of Opening, put on a ring of slow digestion, cast charm monster or read scroll of taming, or kill your pet.
When inside, external monsters can't harm you or your engulfer, and normal monsters can't summon others. You can nudge your room around by applying a magic whistle, although this only moves it a few random squares at a time.
Any items you drop while inside go into the engulfer's inventory and remain accessible on the 'floor' until you get out. Items left inside remain in the engulfer's inventory, which it can hold or drop at random like with any other pet carrying things.
A lesser form of this is to be engulfed by a fire/energy vortex while you are resistant to fire/lightning. You can heal in here, and have as many turns breathing room as you like before you kill the vortex.
Crassworm's Hotel has been fixed for the next feature release; it's listed as C343-204 which appeared on the buglist August 19th, 2006.

crazy lines

You read magic mapping outside the map or or on a non mappable level (VotD, etc). Confused ?oMM maps 1/7th of the level..

cream pie

A delectable food. Also has the quality of blinding on contact. Can be thrown or applied. Often karried by Keystone Kops.
Weighs 10, conveys 100 nutrition. Eating a cream pie will break the vegan conduct but not vegetarian.
If blinded by a cream pie, #wipe your face or [a]pply a towel.
(a)pplying it blinds for 1-25 turns as does throwing up (<) however it blinds monsters for 22-46 turns when thrown at an enemy

create familiar

Level 6 clerical spell. 1/3 chance to create a tame <PetType>, 2/3 chance to create a tame random monster (if that type of monster can be tamed).
Create Familiar calls the same random-monster routines that all other parts of the game use to generate a monster, except that the monster will always be tame. This means that your familiar will always be roughly the same grade as the stuff you're currently fighting.
This also means that casting it deep in Gehennom or Astral are your best bets for getting some real nasty pets.

create monster

A wonderful effect, produced by scrolls, spells, wands, or a bag of tricks, which causes (normally hostile) monsters to appear near you. Monsters can be killed for XP points, corpses, and objects.
Reading a scroll of create monster while confused will summon a boatload of acid blobs, not respecting extinction. This can be used to extinct acid blobs or to fill an entire level with them if you have enough scrolls.
Breaking a charged wand of create monster will summon a storm of meanies - even with only one charge left!
Casting create monster when all extinctable monsters have become extinct results in no monster and no message.

credit

When in a shop, any money dropped by you (or placed into containers on the floor of the shop) will add to your credit with that shopkeeper. [You can check your available credit with the ($) command]
When purchasing items, the game will ask whether you wish to use store credit first. This method is preferable to straight payment because marauding creatures or your pets can pick up the stack of zorkmids and deliver it outside the shop, without affecting shop credit.
Doing this intentionally is a great way to multiply your shop credit, to be able to afford those items your pets can't (or won't... useful cursed) steal for you.
Note, however, that this is only useful for obtaining items rather than obtaining cash, as the multiplication involved is strictly "on the books"
This method .can., however, be used to purchase an expensive uncursed spellbook or weapon, which can be repeately stolen and resold to bleed the shopkeeper dry of funds when you need the cold hard cash.

credit card

A Tourist starting item which can be (a)pplied to unlock doors and chests.
Can also be used to open closed shops.
No, you can't get credit in a shop using this item.

credit clone

Drop cash in shop. Have pet bring it out to you. Rinse. Repeat.

credit cloning

Dropped gold in a store is exchanged for credit (displayed by the '$' command).
If your pet retrieves the gold, you keep both the gold and the credit.
You can then buy on credit and sell for gold, until the store is bankrupt and you have all the stock.

creosote

see {Croesus}

crested helmet

One of the unidentified helms. It could be a plain helmet (auto-id'd for some chars), helm of brilliance, helm of telepathy, or the dreaded helm of opposite alignment.

crocodile

Crocodile corpses always polymorph into non-cursed fireproof +0 pairs of low boots.
Eaten: crocodile Nutr: 400

croesus

The owner of the gold vaults.
Also known to his employees as "Kroisos" or "Creosote".
If Croesus is dead, the vault guards will know, so don't even try it. "Back from the dead, are you?"
Difficulty 22, deals 4d10 damage, MR 40.
Eaten: Croesus Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

crom

The neutral god of Barbarians.

crown

see {crowning}

crowned

see {crowning}

crowning

When praying on an altar, your god can crown you, if you're pious or better, and you haven't already been crowned.
When crowned, you'll gain see invisible, fire, cold, shock, sleep and poison resistances.
Lawfuls will be crowned The Hand of Elbereth, Neutrals Envoy of Balance, Chaotics Glory of Arioch. Lawfuls will also get Excalibur, neutrals Vorpal Blade, and chaotics Stormbringer. (Your god will unrestrict the relevant weapon skill.)
Exceptions: when crowned, wizards get a spellbook of finger of death; monks, a spellbook of restore ability.
Wizards won't get a spellbook if they are wielding Vorpal Blade or Stormbringer.
Monks won't get a spellbook if they are wielding any artifact weapon, instead getting Vorpal Blade or Stormbringer, if neutral or chaotic, respectively.
Greatly increases prayer timeout.
Crowning also unrestricts you in your crowning artifact (regardless of receiving it or not) and your current weapon if you do not receive a gift; it also rustproofs and fixes your current weapon, and sets it to +1 if it was below that.
Changing your alignment (either through a badly-aligned #offer or wearing the helmet) doesn't remove your crowning.
00:01 < kriebly> getting crowned by your god gives little benefit, but it does look nice on your resume.

crude chain mail

see {orcish_chain_mail}

crude spear

Unidentified orcish spear.

crunched in the head by an iron ball

When an iron ball falls on your head and you die.

crunching sound

see {you_hear_a_crunching_sound}

crysknife

The tooth of the worm, wielded, can become a crysknife by undergoing magical enchantment. However, the crysknife will revert to its natural state when it leaves your possession.
A crysknife makes an excellent second-hand weapon for those who choose #twoweapon combat (although a silver saber may be preferred versus some foes).
"fixed" crysknife has only 10% chance of reverting back to worm tooth.
The crysknife, the worm (shai-hulud) and the concept of "fixed" are from the Dune books by Frank Herbert.
It has a +3 to-hit and does d10/d10.

crystal ball

Heavy (150 weight) tool that can be applied to search for a monster, object or symbol. Blessed scrolls of charging will set the charges at six, uncursed scrolls of charging will add one charge, for a maximum of five. The Orb of Detection (Archeologist) and the Orb of Fate (Valkyrie) are artifact crystal balls.
When applied and non cursed, it has a INT/20 chance of finding any monster, object or symbol (including traps and portals, excluding stairs). Otherwise (or if cursed) it will either result in confusion, blindness, hallucination, explosion (non-artifact only) or nothing. Get yours today for hours of endless fun!
Applying a crystal ball will paralyze you for 1d10 turns ("trance").
Quest artifact crystal balls are always generated at 5 charges, but you will get a random amount of charges if you wish for the artifacts.
Will work while engulfed.

crystal mail

see {crystal_plate_mail}

crystal plate mail

Glass body armor, AC7, MC2, weight 450, cost 820. Cumbersome, but a big AC boost. Does not hinder spellcasting(!). Does not rust. Better than other plate mail. Dwarven mithril is better if not casting spells. Will shatter from being handled roughly, or from force bolt/striking when not in inventory.

cure sickness

The spell of cure sickness will relieve you of the following ailments: illness, lethal food poisoning, and sliming.

curious feeling

You were dallying with a foocubus, who tried to level-drain you by sexual exhaustion, but you were protected from level drain.

curse

Cursed items have detrimental effects when used and/or cannot be removed once equipped. Curses can be removed using a Remove Curse scroll/spell (for equipped items), praying, or by dipping the items in holy water.
"The monster points at you and curses" - The curse described here is a verbal curse, resulting from the monster being unable to correctly cast a spell. This is equivalent to getting "You fail to cast the spell correctly".
Books, scrolls, potions, and tools are the only items that work differently cursed. Wands may also explode if you zap a cursed one. Weapons, armor, rings, amulets, and anything wielded can't be removed.
Cursed pieces of armor can be removed by dipping in holy water, or, more shrewdly, by dropping absolutely everything you have and allowing a nymph to steal them.
Having on a cursed blindfold/towel or a cursed boots/ring of levitation is considered a 'major' problem and can be fixed by praying to your god.

cursed

Cursed stuff is generally bad.
In brief, anything that can be enchanted, that's worn on the body, and is cursed will not be removable.
Rings, amulets, armour, weapons (including pickaxes and unicorn horns) will all weld themselves to you.

cursed wand

Cursed wands have a 1% chance of exploding when zapped; this does 1 to 6 points of damage for each charge in the wand, plus an additional 2 to 12 points of damage, and abuses your strength.

cursed wands

Cursed wands have a 1% chance of exploding when zapped; this does 1 to 6 points of damage for each charge in the wand, plus an additional 2 to 12 points of damage, and abuses your strength.

cursed weapon

If the weapon a character is wielded is cursed, it will be welded to the chatacter's hand(s).
Characters will be unable to wear or remove gloves or rings with a cursed one-handed weapon. A cursed two-handed weapon is even more debilitating -- characters cannot (a)pply bags or #loot containers until the weapon is removed or uncursed.
In addition to techniques that will uncurse any item, a weapon can be uncursed by a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon.
Less traditional methods to remove it include allowing a nymph or monkey to steal it.

curses bugs

[http://sourceforge.net]

curved sword

see {scimitar}

cwnannwn

The hounds of the underworld, Welsh phantom dogs seen as a death portent.
You have some method of healing, right? No? I hope you can pray.

cyclehack

Essentially, competitive RoundRobin, with teams of 3 players cycling through missions on 3 characters. Rules: [https://docs.google.com]
The competition starts July 1, 2012! Sign up here: [https://docs.google.com]
(Blatantly stolen from *that other game*.)

cyclops

The Healer quest nemesis, a giant.
Can leveldrain you multiple times in one turn, doing a massive amount of damage. Meleeing him is a bad idea.
Eaten: Cyclops Nutr: 700 Effects: Strength

cydeweys

Has Ascended samurai, tourist, and valkyrie on nao and wizard locally.

d

Command: 'd' Drop an object. Doing 'd7a' drops seven items of object in inventory slot 'a'.
Command: 'D' Drop selected types of objects.
Monster: 'D' Dragons. Gray, silver, red, white, orange, black, blue, green or yellow. Includes their baby versions.
Monster: 'd' Dogs and dog-like monsters. Jackal, fox, coyote, werejackal, (little|large) dog, dingo, wolf, werewolf, warg, winter wolf (cub), and hell hound (pup).
Command: '^D' Kick something, like a door.
Command: 'Meta-d' Same as '#dip'.

dagger

Very basic weapon that has a +2 bonus to hit. Ordinary daggers do 1d4 damage against small monsters, and 1d3 against large ones.
Ra, Ro, T, V and W can become expert at daggers.
Ra and Ro have the chance of throwing an extra dagger.
Good for prying chests and boxes open.
Silver daggers weigh 12; all other daggers (including athames, such as Magicbane) weigh 10.

dagger weight

All daggers weigh 10.

damage calculator

see {weapon_damage[4]}

dandelion wine

see {this_tastes_like_dandelion_wine}

dangerous

As of 2015-08-29, the leading death dealers on alt.org: soldier ants, jackals, wands of striking, dwarves, water moccasins

dangerous winds

To get killed by "dangerous winds", you must be wearing a ring of levitation, fall into a pit in Sokoban, and remove the ring of levitation; you will take d2 damage from having the winds causing you to fall over.

dark one

The Wizard quest nemesis, a rather wimpy human.
Good idea to use magicbane if you can.
He can't run upstairs if you put a boulder on the staircase.
Beware: if he's high-level, he might be able to summon nasties, which is usually a much greater danger than his other attacks.
Only resistant to stoning intrinsically, although he usually picks up the Eye immediately and gains MR as well.

dasunt

One of the *very* freaky NetHackers. He loves to teach Rodney.
He also tends to play with a lot of pets.
Is _VERY_ patient.
One of the freakier NetHackers. He loves to kill tourists.

ddtt

Don't do that, then.

deafening roar

Careful... you just stepped on a magic trap and got the "blindness/summon monsters" result, but you were already blind. Hope it was a blindfold, a towel, or you've got ESP, buddy.

death

One of the endgame riders, Death has a very annoying attack which drains your max hp. Don't shoot a wand/finger of death at him (duh), and as with all riders, touching his body revives him instantly.
If you want to play around with riders for xp, Death probably isn't the best choice unless you can ensure that he won't continue to touch you.
To every man upon this earth / Death cometh soon or late; / And how can man die better / Than facing fearful odds / For the ashes of his fathers / And the temples of his gods? -- Lord Macaulay Thomas Babington
Revelation 6:8 "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death..."
Dying is not too difficult. But you'll have to figure out yourself how to do it.
Understand death? Sure. That was when the monsters got you. -- Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Eating Death also has a 100% chance of killing you instantly.
Death's "deadly touch" attack has a 60% chance of draining your max hitpoints, a 15% chance of instantly killing you if you lack Magic Resistance (otherwise draining max HP), and a 25% chance of doing no damage at all.
Death is very interested in finding out what makes humans tick, being well aware of what makes them stop. -- Terry Pratchett
Eaten: Death Nutr: 1 Effects: DIE, Teleport Control

death drop

Any randomly generated item a monster leaves when it dies.

death magic

There are (1) wand of death (death ray); (2) spell "finger of death" (death ray); (3) touch of death (melee attack of L and Rodney); and (4) Death's Touch (Death endgame rider attack).
Death rays (1) and (2) are blocked by Reflection (i.e. SDSM or reflection shield).
All four sources of death magic could be blocked by Magic Resistance, although Death will still drain your maxHP.
_Don't_ zap yourself with a death ray.

deathonastick

Possibly the most eccentric (insane?) NetHacker ever.
He polypiled rocks for a year and a half, only to drink an unBUCed (cursed) potion of gain level on level one - leaving his hundreds of thousands of valuables behind.
If you ever see him in real life, please give him a hug and tell him that everything is going to be all right.
Just to taunt him, the RNG gave him two dilithium crystals on astral.
He later tried again, succeeding this time, to ascend carrying over 8000 gems, with a total value of 32222050zm: [http://alt.org]

deathrobin

The goal of DeathRobin is to get as many unique deaths as possible. DeathRobin has some unique NAO deaths (like "killed by dangerous winds" and "killed by leg damage from being pulled out of a bear trap").
As usual with the robins, the password is "robin". If there's a game in progress, please don't screw it up (for suitable values of "screw it up", obviously).
Please name a weapon or something with what death you're going for if you leave it.
No player has these helpless messages yet: being scared stiff (falling Magicbane), gazing into a mirror (floating eye polyself), pretending to be a pile of gold (eat mimic), scared by rattling (chat skeleton), ringing a bell (it must be cursed and summon a nymph for a chance at this).

debian

nethack-gnome, nethack-qt, nethack-x11, and nethack-console are the debian nethack packages. There is also a nethack-spoilers package. "apt-get install <packagename>" to install nethack.
For debian stable users, [http://www.apt-get.org] tends to have the current version of nethack in deb form.
Easily the best NetHack package out there.

decaying green substance

see {spinach}

decgraphics

Configuration option. Use DEC line-drawing characters. Won't work for all terminals.
If you use XTerm/RXVT/aterm/Eterm/etc. to play NetHack through NAO, and can't seem to get DECgraphics to display correctly, check out [http://tweek.no-ip.org] for a 13-pt fixed-width Lucida font that (supposedly) works with DEC/IBM/whatever, and looks cool.
To prepare - decompress the file ($ bunzip2 lutRS13-ascii.bdf.bz2), then use bdftopcf to compile the font ($ bdftopcf lutRS13-ascii.bdf > lutRS13-ascii.pcf), then gzip the resulting file ($ gzip lutRS13-ascii.pcf).
To install - copy the gzipped, compiled PCF file into any font path specified in your XF86Config or xorg.conf file. I use /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/. Then cd to that path and use mkfontdir (# mkfontdir) to regenerate the path's fonts.dir listing, then use xset ($ xset fp rehash) to have X look for new fonts. (You could also restart X, but, meh.)
To use - tell your favorite terminal emulator to use the font -b&h-lucidatypewriter-medium-r-normal-sans-13-125-75-75-m-80-ascii-0 (on many systems -*-lucidatypewriter-medium-*-*-*-13-*-*-*-*-*-ascii-0 will be enough). Most of these accept a command-line argument of -fn; for something more permanent, add an entry to .Xresources like Aterm*font: -*-lucida...
Report any bugs, occurences of artifacts (annoying pixels that remain after redraws) or general ideas (I plan, for example, to round the corners off eventually) to tweek.20k@gmail.com

decrypt

To decrypt an arbitrary file, you will need a blessed magic marker, a cursed scroll of blank paper, and an uncursed tripe ration. While confused and hallucinating, eat the tripe ration, then attempt to write a scroll of gold detection.

default rc

definately

Don't ever say that again.

deli

see {delicatessen}

deliberately meeting medusa's gaze

How to be petrified by deliberately meeting Medusa's gaze
Step 1: Dig down past Medusa's lair (keep track of what level it's on)
Step 2: Gather the following items: Blessed amulet of life saving, ring of polymorph control, wand of polymorph, ring of stealth (if you don't have it intrinsically), boots of speed. Put on or wear all the items mentioned above.
Step 3: On the upstairs leading to Medusa's lair polymorph into an umber hulk
Step 4: Go upstairs, Medusa should be alseep and you should not be stone. If medusa is awake then you messed up.
Step 5: Attack Medusa, you'll turn to stone but your amulet should save you. It should then be your turn.
Step 6: #monster
Step 7: Your gaze confuses Medusa! Gazing at the awake Medusa is not a very good idea. You turn to stone...

delicatessen

A shop. Sells and buys food, fruit juice, booze, water and ice boxes.
Delicatessens are run by shopkeepers named: Djasinga, Tjibarusa, Tjiwidej, Pengalengan, Bandjar, Parbalingga, Bojolali, Sarangan, Ngebel, Djombang, Ardjawinangun, Berbek, Papar, Baliga, Tjisolok, Siboga, Banjoewangi, Trenggalek, Karangkobar, Njalindoeng, Pasawahan, Pameunpeuk, Patjitan, Kediri, Pemboeang, Tringanoe, Makin, Tipor, Semai, Berhala, Tegal, and Samoe.

delicious smell

You will smell a delicious smell when producing chunks of meat/reanmating statues/stoned monsters from stone. If you are a herbivore, you instead smell the odor of meat.

delphi

see {oracle}

demilich

Can cast any of Psi Bolt, Haste Self, Disappear (Invisibility), Destroy Armor, Curse Items, Aggravate, and a few more. Has base MR 60. Leaves no corpse.

demirobin

Like roundrobin, but for cool people (a.k.a. established demigods). Account: demirobin. Password: robin.
Current project: lots of woodchucks in the demigod bar
Priorities: ascend, collect ascension kit, get reflection, MR and PR, survive.
"orc wiz died huh?" "orc wiz was 2 ascs ago" "you guys ascend like every 12 damn hours"
For fuck's sake, DON'T BLOW UP THE BoH.
DOAS is invited
Start worrying when a) hpmon goes yellow, b) you see a cockatrice, or c) the death ray whizzes by you.

demo

see {Demogorgon}

demogorgon

Summoned-only demon lord: level 106, speed 15, AC -8, MR 95, resists fire and poison, M8d6+ 1d4V 1d6# 1d6#. With two illness attacks, he can kill quickly, so don't dawdle. He respects Elbereth, get it down ASAP and fix any illness or kill him quickly (such as stoning).
Only chaotic demons (Orcus, Juiblex and Yeenoghu, of which Orcus is the most effective) may gate in Demogorgon, although he can be also be summoned by high-level spellcasters (eg Rodney)
If you want to kill him a lot of times, take care of the black dragons before they disintegrate him.
Unicorn horns have a chance of failing, and holy water will only work if you are not chaotic. Your best bet is to use a 100% way of curing sickness, such as the spell, or b!oHeal, !oEH, and !oFH.
Image: [http://www.merzo.net]
A recommended strategy for killing him is to stone him, either with a 'trice corpse, or some chickatrice eggs.

demon

Demons are all & except Death, Pestilence, Famine, the mail daemon, djinn, and sandestins. (weap-343, Calculating damage)
Demons take additional weapon damage; +d4 if blessed, and another +d20 if silver. Demons are immune to death rays.

demon lord

see {demon_lords}

demon lords

The following are demon lords/princes: Juiblex, Yeenoghu, Orcus, Geryon, Dispater, Baalzebub, Asmodeus, Demogorgon
See their individual encyclopaedia entries for more info.

demon mapping

An easy way to map out the staircases: 1) Find Asmodeus. 2) Level teleport to the bottom. 3) Whack on him until he teleports to the upstairs. 4) Teleport over to him and whack on him until he escapes upstairs. 5) Rinse, lather, repeat.
Useful tip: Use a stethoscope to avoid killing him.
One of the problems with this technique is you sometimes have to deal with arch-liches and other demon princes. The way to handle them is to wait on the >, wait for them to show up next to you, then go down. Asmodeus will remain on the above level, but now you're (hopefully) on the < with the other baddy.
While you do this you might like to walk from > to < with a pick-axe in hand. You were going to make a path between stairs anyway, right?
Asmodeus is probably the best demon lord to guide you to the stairs. Baalzebub's stunning gets incredibly annoying after the second or third level.
One of the problems with this technique is it can be difficult to find Vlad's Tower. To find Vlad's you can buy clairvoyance from the Valley priest or use your very short supply of magic mapping scrolls. Or walk around like a real man!

demon prince

see {demon lords}

demon princes

see {demon_lords}

demon summoning

All major demons will attempt to summon a demon as a 1/13 chance on each turn they act on, unless fleeing, in addition to normal actions. This has no message, and respects extinction.
For additional information: [http://www.nethack.de]

demonbane

A pitiful long sword artifact that does double damage vs. demons and isn't even silver!
You'd be better off using Frost Brand (double damage vs. non-cold-resistant monsters, including demons) or Grayswandir (silver).
One of many joke monster-specific artifact weapons that is just an obstacle in the way of a good weapon.
Doesn't even deal what extra damage it's got to the Riders, the mail daemon, sandestin and djinni.

dented pot

An iron helmet that drops AC by one. Use a dwarvish iron helm instead for a drop of AC by 2.

desire for conflict

You get this message if you're wearing a ring of conflict while entering the Astral plane: A voice booms: "Thy desire for conflict shall be fulfilled!"
Wearing ring of conflict when entering the astral plane causes you to get d4 hostile A's instead of a pet A

destroy armor

A scroll that destroys one random piece of worn armor unless confused. If cursed and confused, adds rustproofing or fireproofing to one random worn armor. Non-cursed and confused randomly removes same. Base price: 100 zorkmids
cursed unconfused destroy armor will not destroy a cursed item, instead stunning you for 10-19 turns and driving armor not already below -5 down by 1.
See {some_armor} for which item is picked. Only artifacts can resist.

destroy armour

see {destroy_armor}

destroy old game

The bane of an online nethack session. As long as you don't press "y", the game is probably recoverable. Ask paxed nicely and he might help you with this.

detect food

Same effects as an uncursed (unskilled or basic) or blessed (skilled or expert) scroll of food detection.

detect monsters

Level 1 divination spell, spellbook has a base price of 100 zm.
Unskilled or basic has the same effect as an uncursed potion of monster detection. (Detect monsters briefly.)
Skilled or expert works like a blessed potion of monster detection. (You detect monsters for 21 to 60 (more) turns (if already at least 300 turns, just one more turn.)

detect treasure

see {object detection}

detect unseen

Level 3 divination spell. Secret door detection spell variant.

devnull

The /dev/null/nethack tournament, running every year in November: [http://nethack.devnull.net]
Now discontinued. See also {tnnt}

devnull options

devteam

The DevTeam, secret cabal that develops NetHack.
Members of the core team include Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Kevin Hugo, Ken Lorber, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz, Paul Winner, Warwick Allison, Sean Hunt, Pasi Kallinen, Derek S. Ray, Alex Smith, and Patric Mueller.
That which thinks of everything.

dex

see {dexterity}

dexterity

Dexterity (Dx:) affects your combat to-hit, your dodging ability, your agility, as well as untrapping ability, rate of smudging dust engravings, and musical instrument ability. It is rated from 1-18 for all races except dwarf, who may have 20 dex. Gauntlets of Dexterity can raise dexterity up to 25 for all classes.
Dwarves are blessed with a racial max of 20 dexterity, while all other races have a cap of 18. This can be overridden by gauntlets of dexterity, which adds its enchantment to the dexterity (unlike gauntlets of power, which instantly set strength 25 regardless of enchantment).
In the format of [Dex]=(to-hit bonus): [3]=(-3). [4-5]=(-2). [6-7]=(-1). [8-14]=(0). [15]=(+1). [16]=(+2). [17]=(+3). [18]=(+4). [19]=(+5). [20]=(+6). [21]=(+7). [22]=(+8). [23]=(+9). [24]=(+10). [25]=(+11).
Exercised by: kicking monsters, doors, thrones, altars, and sinks; catching boomerangs; hitting a monster with a missile weapon, iron ball, or boulder; moving without levitation on the Plane of Air; picking a lock; playing a flute or harp; #monster'ing a web as a spider; disarming a trap; stealing gold as a leprechaun; sucking brains as a flayer; speed monster at self; fighting monsters.
Abused by: satiated; heavily encumbered; wounded legs; fumbling; getting stunned; kicking a sink badly; kicking at space; missing a kick at small non-flying monsters while levitating; levitating over a sink; tumbling on Plane of Air; bumping into a door; paralyzed; being stoned or slowed down; caught in beartrap or pit; slow monster at self.

df

Dwarf Fortress

dfv

see {dig_for_victory}

dfv manifesto

dig.
for victory.
please direct any further inquiries to see {DfV}
don't get killed.

dgamelaunch

The program used to launch nethack and allow people to watch others' games on nethack.alt.org.
Source: [https://github.com]

dgl

see {dgamelaunch}

diablo

Rather successful commercial game that borrowed shamelessly from the roguelike genre. Graphics intensive and real-time.
Apparently, unlike Angband, "immune" in Diablo actually means "resistant".

diamond

A rare hard white gem worth 4000 zorkmids.
In the main dungeon, diamonds usually won't be seen above dungeon level 25.

diamond ring

An unidentified ring. Cannot be eaten by any monster.

diamondrobin

see {RoundRobin}

die

What you try to not do.
What most people in NetHack end up doing.
The singular form of dice.

die for victory

see {Dig_for_victory}

diffuse

You acquired teleportitis while hallucinating from eating a corpse.

dig for victory

Play an elven wizard. Find a pickaxe. Dig down to the castle level. Squash everything using the drawbridge, getting you to xl10-12 or so. Get the castle wand, and wish up enough to survive. You can get to the wand in well under 2000 turns - in theory.
Best done with elven wizards. Wizards can start with /oDigging, =oRegen, and other helpful items. Elves always start with an instrument (though it may be a bell, drum, unusable for the drawbridge). Tooled horns are the best instrument because if you improvise with it, it'll scare monsters away.
Crassworm has achieved the first documented dig-for-victory ascension! See [http://alt.org] for the dig for victory portion.
For an illustration of what Dig for Victory looks like, see [http://gatherer.wizards.com] (and note the flavor text)
An alternate illustration: [http://greyfire.no-ip.org]

dig to victory

see {dig for victory}

dilithium

see {dilithium_crystal}

dilithium crystal

A rare soft white gem worth 4500 zorkmids, the most valuable in the game.
In the main dungeon, dilithium crystals usually won't be seen above dungeon level 28.
Levport me up, Scotty!
No, you can't use dilithium in any way. It's just a soft gem. The port me up thing was a joke.

dingo

Diff 5, Lvl 4. A relatively fast (16) wolflike creature with a 1d6 attack and AC5.
Eaten: dingo Nutr: 200

dip

see {#dip}

disclose

Configuration option. What do you want NetHack to show when your game ends. ex. "disclose:yi na +v -g -c" y=prompt with default yes, n=prompt with default no, +=show it, -=don't show it, i=inventory, a=attributes, v=vanquished monsters, g=genocided monsters, c=conduct.
A useful disclose option is yi +avgc. If you want to see none of your disclose stuff (perhaps you YASDed and are angry), hit 'q'. If you want to see all of it, hit 'y' or space, all the following options are auto-show. Stevie's idea!

disconnect

In the event of a sudden quit, such as with a program crash or a network disconnection, your game files will be available if you want to restore them (or not).
However, it's possible that there's a restore failure or a savegame corruption, in which case you're screwed. Sorry.
If you can't restore your game on NAO, get in touch with paxed.

discovery mode

see {explore mode}

disenchanter

A monster whose melee attacks reduce the magical enchantment on your armor until it reaches +0. If you attack it, it will reduce the enchantment on the weapon you attacked it with until it reaches +0.
Can be cancelled to remove the disenchantment ability, and its disenchantment attack respects magic cancellation so MC3 will protect your armor.
LV12, speed 12, AC -10, 0 MR, alignment -3. Only generated in Gehennom. 4d4 disenchant melee, 0d0 passive disenchant. Yes, this is the only other monster with AC-10 in the game besides Master Kaen; as such, they make nice pets.
Eaten: disenchanter Nutr: 200

disgusting nest

see {cockatrice_nest}

dish washer

"The dish washer returns!" Kicking a sink may give an appropriate foocubus.

disintegration-resistance

see {disintegration_resistance}

disintegration resistance

The kind of resistance that you need if you lack reflection, this protects you from being disintegrated by black dragons and the wrath of gods (If you survive the lightning).
Also protects your armor from black dragons, but not the wide angle beams of gods.
Obtained by wearing black dragon scales (or mail), eating a black dragon (tinning helps) or the Chromatic dragon, or polymorphing into a light, (baby) black dragon, or energy vortex.

dispater

Yet another demon lord, resistant to fire and poison, with decent melee and spell attacks, including summon nasties. Dispater can only be summoned.
He's lawful, so stick around Asmodeus, Baalzebub or Geryon to have a shot at meeting him.

displacement

If you have displacement, monsters will think you are on an adjacent square and miss you. They have a 25% chance of resisting its effects.
If you are invisible as well as displaced, displacement will only affect monsters that can see invisible, as your displaced image will be invisible.

distant howling

A magic trap had no effect.

divination

see {Divination_Spells}

divination spells

In this group (with their levels) are: detect monsters(1),light(1),detect food(2),clairvoyance(3),detect unseen(3),identify(3),detect treasure(4),magic mapping(5)
Expert: Archaeologist, Priest, Ranger, Wizard. Skilled: Rogue. Basic: Monk, Tourist.

djinn

see {djinni}

dlvl

Dungeon level

do not pass go

"Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 zorkmids." You died on turn 1. A reference to the board game Monopoly.

do you know what lives in this water!

[https://nethackwiki.com]
You tried to quaff from the water around you when underwater

doas

see {DeathOnAStick}

dod

Dungeons of Doom

doesn't like your taste

Monsters with digest attacks don't like it when you wear rings of slow digestion...
Only applies to engulfing monsters that actually try to *digest* you. Vortices, elementals, etc, are not affected.

doesn't shock you

you have shock res

doesnt like your taste

see {doesn't_like_your_taste}

dog

Little dogs grow up into dogs which grow up into large dogs. Eating any of these gives you aggravate monster intrinsic, unless you're exempt from cannibalism.
Speed 16, AC 5, bites for 1d6 damage.
Eaten: dog Nutr: 200 Effects: Aggravate

dogname

Configuration option. Name of your starting dog, eg. "dogname:Fang" Cannot be set in-game.

don't panic

A message that might be printed on a T-shirt. A reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

donate

You can donate to any priest, regardless of alignment, if they are peaceful and in a temple of their own alignment.
You donate by getting next to a non-hostile temple priest in their temple, #chat to them, and entering an amount of money.
Donating 0 to a coaligned priest decreases your alignment by 1.
Donating < 200 gold per XL when you have less than twice this amount of gold in main inventory gives you the thanks of the priest, and exercises wisdom.
Donating 200-399 gold per XL when you have less than twice this amount of gold in main inventory: if you have bad alignment it will be improved by 1, and if your alignment was positive then you gain 500-1000 (extra) turns of clairvoyance (750 average). see {clairvoyance}
Donating 400-599 gold per XL gives a chance at protection. see {protection}
600+ gold per XL with a coaligned priest, and over 1/3 of visible gold gives +2 align, or zeros it if it was negative (once every 5000 turns at most).
If you #chat with a priest and the priest "is not interested," either you have no money and the priest has no money or, if the priest is coaligned, you have no money and you have strayed (your alignment is bad).

donation

see {donate}

doomrl

A good roguelike by Kornel Kisielewicz. Fast-paced and relatively simple (even your kid brother may like it): [http://doom.chaosforge.org]
For keybindings similar to what NetHack uses (in numpad mode), check out [http://doomwiki.chaosforge.org]

door resists

The door isn't locked, it's just hard to open. You can try kicking the door, but if you just keep trying it'll open. Note that this exercises strength.

doppelganger

Eaten: doppelganger Nutr: 400 Effects: Human Polymorph

doppelmelon

see {doppelmeleon}

dorn

Andreas Dorn has patches for nethack at [http://home.arcor.de]

dos

check every freshly slain corpse for edibility. food is scarce
Always ID wands by engraving as soon as possible after you get them.

double trouble

One of the Wizard of Yendor's nasty tricks. It summons a second Wizard (sometimes he's disguised as a monster for the first few turns). The second Wizard is just as potent as the first, so watch out!

draft

"You feel an unexpected draft." A wall-eating monster ate a door. This gives the message 1 out of 3 times.

dragon

There are nine different colors of dragon - grey (magic resistance), silver (reflection), red (fire), white (cold), orange (sleep), black (disintegration), blue (shock), green (poison), and yellow (acid).
Most of the different colors of dragons have a breath weapon related to their color. Dragons can leave scales that provide resistance (or reflection) depending on their color.
Baby dragons will not leave scales and do not have a breath weapon, but they can grow up into the adult version. Female adult dragons can #sit to lay eggs which will hatch into baby dragons.
Silver dragons breathe cold (like white), and grey dragons breathe magic missiles.
While they do make powerful pets, they have a tendency to pick fights with peacefuls. Avoid bringing them into shops where you want to price ID.
Level 15, difficulty 20, speed 9, AC -1.

dragon scale mail

<color> dragon scale mail is made by wearing dragon scales and reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor. They lower AC by 9, do not corrode, and don't hinder spellcasting.
Dragon scale mail weighs 40 and does not provide any magic cancellation.
All dragon scale mails cost 900 except for black, silver, and gray, which cost 1200.
The colors (and intrinsics) are red (fire resistance), white (cold resistance), orange (sleep resistance), blue (shock resistance), green (poison reistance), yellow (acid resistance), black (disintegration resistance), silver (reflection), and gray (magic resistance).
When you polymorph (without polymorph control) while wearing dragon scale mail, you will always polymorph into a dragon of the color of the DSM you are wearing.

dragon scales

All dragon scales lower AC by 3 and weigh 40. Reading a scroll of enchant armor will convert them into dragon scale mail, the best armor available.
They provide different resistances depending on what color they are.
If you use a blessed scroll of enchant armor, the resultant mail will have its enchantment increased by 1, and the mail will be blessed. If uncursed scroll, no change in enchantment, and the scales become uncursed if cursed.
Also see {turn_undead}

dragonbane

One of many joke monster-specific artifact weapons that is just an obstacle in the way of a good weapon.
Base item is broadsword. Gets +1d5 to hit and double damage vs dragons.

drain for gain

see {drain_for_prot}

drain for prot

A dangerous technique of getting to the VotD with a ton of loot (Ludios etc) and having a kindly wraith drain you back down to level 1, at which point you then turn your drain protection back on suddenly, kill the wraith and chat the VoD priest.
Suggested that you notch up your bedposts with a number of nurse encounters BEFORE trying this, so you have a healthy, say, 80HP at level 1. Added bonus: leveling back up with your probably-18-Con-by-now character gets you even more max hp. You also get to fix all those silly skill slot choices you made 30k turns ago. Used by mathx, et al.
It gets boring #ch<cr><space>400<cr>'ing each time you donate, so make a macro. Wield a creampie or a !o*Heal tho incase your macro messes up when something happens, cuz this one time, I, uh...</wiggum>
nice to wear a -ve =Con for the drain, and +ve for the relevelling up, lose fewer hp going down, gain more going up...
But BEWARE [http://methpilot.ath.cx]

drain life

Level 2 attack spell.
Removes a plus from armor or weapon, or reduces monster HP, max HP and level.
So you enchanted your helm of brilliance and it only went to +4. Drain life it and retry until you get +5. Also very effective against some of the quest nemeses: Master Kaen in particular.
Doesn't work on undead peoples and stuffs. 'Cause, they've got no life to drain.
Doesn't work on demons, either, but that's another story.

drawbridge

Drawbridges are a type of terrain represented by the symbol "#" in the TTY interface. They can be found at the entrance to the castle and in Lord Surtur's lair. The castle drawbridge can be raised or lowered by playing the correct 5-note passtune on a tonal instrument. To do this, decline to improvise when asked.
The tune can be divined by playing mastermind (gear = right note right position, tumbler = right note wrong position) or gifted as a prayer favor. Flipping the bridge will squish object or monsters on the "bridge up" and "bridge down" squares. Phasers will evade. Flying monsters may evade. Playing the passtune takes zero game-time. If you miss a flyer, try again.
Drawbridges will be destroyed if hit by a wand of striking or a force bolt. This is usually fatal to anyone standing on the "bridge up" or "bridge down" squares at the time. For this reason one usually stands a "knight's move" away from the castle bridge while squishing the inhabitants, to avoid line-of-sight with soldiers.
Mastermind solver : [http://nethack.gridbug.de]
Warning: Opening drawbridges can be fatal.

drone

"you hear an angry drone" There is a giant beehive on this level.

drow

Dark elves. They do not exist in NetHack, but they do in Slash'EM.

drown

Drowning can happen two ways. Being dragged in, or falling into the water in some way.
Being dragged in by a ; can be prevented by the following means:
Wearing a non-cursed greased cloak/suit (whichever is outermost) (100%, but 1/3 chance that the grease will wear off each time)
Wearing a non-cursed oilskin cloak (100% guaranteed protection) (cursed outermost greased/oilskin item is only 2/3 chance of protection)
Cancelling the ; in question (works 100% UNLESS you are already grabbed, or if you polyself into a grabber such as a rope golem or owlbear and attack said ;)
Polyselfing into a monster that 'sticks' completely prevents you from being grabbed, 100%. (large/giant mimic; lichen; violet F; couatl; python; giant/electric eel; kraken; guardian naga; owlbear; carnivorous ape; rope golem; pit fiend; salamander)
You basically can't usually drown if you walk into the water, apart from unusual circumstances, as you can crawl out.
Having very low str, or cursed loadstones for example. If you are too heavily loaded to get out, you will drop stuff.
If you have the ability to teleport at will, you will attampt to teleport when you fall in, but this may fail on non-teleport levels, or if you have insufficient Pw.
Finally, if you are non-breathing due to Magical Breathing (or Strangulation - a temporary solution), or polyselfed into (earth/water E; any ;, b, e, j, m, v, y, F, L, M, P, V, W, X, or Z; or a newt or crocodile) being dragged in works just like walking in - you arrive on the bottom of the water, and can only see water squares next to you, not land, and can pick up items that have fallen in the water.
If you manage to get into the water far from land (losing your levitation, waterwalking or flying source), you can't climb out and may drown.
Managing to get into the water so that you are not next to land - by jumping or losing your levitation or flying source is another one.

drowning

see {drown}

drsunglass

Notable for having an entry in Rodney's learndb.

drum

A drum may be one of two things: A Leather drum (66%) or a Drum of earthquake (33%)
Both items cost 25 zorkmids, so price identification is not available to tell them apart. In addition a drum of earthquake with no charges behaves exactly like a leather drum.

drum of earthquake

When applied, creates pits and destroys dungeon features in an area centered on you. Be careful, as peaceful monsters falling into pits you created will get angry.
Using one in a store will anger the shopkeeper.

dry rattle

A cancelled monster tried to spit.

dsm

Dragon Scale Mail. Silver and Gray are the most popular.
Lowers AC by 9 and provides an intrinsic according to the color.

dtype

Author of dgamelaunch, and extremely lazy server admin of nethack.alt.org. Also an uninspiring nethack player.
A terrible bot programmer.
He's my daddy!
Crazy guy getting some more life into #nethack on freenode because everyone is teaching his damn bot.
A hoopy frood that's good to sass.
His name is D. Werm Biters!

dudley

see {Dudley's_dungeon}

dudley's dungeon

[http://dudley.nicolaas.net]

dump character

The dump character patch by will dump all ending information (inventory, kill lists, etc) to a file when the game ends. Great for making YAAP to rgrn.

dunce cap

Its unidentified appearance is 'conical hat', which it shares with the cornuthaum. When worn, sets intelligence and wisdom at 6, auto-curses, and shopkeepers will treat you like a tourist for prices!
Base cost is 1 as opposed to the only other item in its class "Conical Hat" - a cornuthaum with a base cost of 80

dungeon

Configuration option. Set the character symbols for displaying the dungeon. See Guidebook for more info.

dungeon crawl

Yet another roguelike.
It is located at [http://www.dungeoncrawl.org]
It's quite a bit harder than nethack. You have been warned!

dust vortex

A handy place to rest from nastier enemies. Only downside is that you get blinded (if not wearing blindfold). Does almost no damage.

dwarf

The dwarf (pl. dwarves, dwarrows) is a humanoid species, short but stocky and robust. With high constitution and health, dwarves are considered more hardy than both elves or men, but make poor spellcasters.
The dwarf race is available for the classes Arc, Cav, and Val. They start their Dungeon career with infravision and a lawful heart.
The dwarf racial bonuses are as follows: +4 starting HP, +d3/+2 HP gain, +0 starting power, -1 power gain.
Max stats: Str18/** Dex20 Con20 Int16 Wis16 Cha16
Eaten: dwarf Nutr: 300 Effects: Dwarf

dwarf king

Eaten: dwarf king Nutr: 300 Effects: Dwarf

dwarf lord

Diff 6, Lvl 4. The largest of the dwarves, there isn't anything special about these, except for consistently decent melee. They are slow(6) and easy to hit (AC10), however.
Eaten: dwarf lord Nutr: 300 Effects: Dwarf

dwarfish

Misspelling of Dwarvish.

dwarven cloak

see {dwarvish cloak}

dwarven mithril

see {dwarvish mithril-coat}

dwarvish cloak

Cloth cloak with the unidentified appearance of "hooded cloak". Does not drop AC (unless enchanted), but provides MC2.
Costs 50zm, weighs 10.

dwarvish iron helm

Its unidentified appearance is 'hard hat'. Made of iron, it is often found in the mines, and will drop AC by 2. Good early game helmet for those who don't mind the iron penalty to spell casting.

dwarvish mattock

see {pick-axe}

dwarvish mithril-coat

Lowers AC by 6, and does not rust. Weighs 150, very light for its AC.
A good choice of armor for early non-magic users. A third of the weight of plate mail, yet provides almost the same protection, and offers more magic cancellation. Look for it in the mines.
Gives magic cancellation level 3 (a.k.a. "MC3").
Mithril-coat is hyphenated.

dwarvish mithril coat

see {dwarvish mithril-coat}

dwarvish roundshield

An iron shield that, unenchanted, will drop AC by 2. It has the appearance of 'large round shield'.
Weight: 100

dwarvish short sword

see {short_sword}

dwarvish spear

Does d8 damage to small enemies and d8 damage to large enemies. Unidentified appearance is a "stout spear".

dx

see {dexterity}

dywypi

"Do you want your possessions identified?" - Abbreviation used to point out that the avatar of the player has died.
Due to the DYWYPI counting as item identification, it exercises wisdom.

e

Command: 'e' Eat something.
Command: 'E' Engrave or write something on the floor. 'E-' use fingers.
Monster: 'e' The infamous floating eye and its (less dangerous) kin: gas spore, freezing, flaming, and shocking spheres.
Monster: 'E' Invisible stalkers and the four elementals -- air, fire, earth and water.
Command: 'Meta-e' Same as '#enhance'.

e-word

see {Elbereth}

e nomsg

Charged wands of locking, nothing, opening, probing, and undead turning give no message when engraved, as does secret door detection when there are no seekrits around.
These wands are all fairly easy, though tedious to ID. Wands of locking, opening, probing, undead turning and nothing all request a direction when zapped. Secret door detection does not.
Zapping the wand at yourself identifies probing and undead turning ("You shudder in dread."); if you get no direction prompt, it was secret door detection.
If you have a open/locked chest, then put it in front of a door that's the other way, and zap at it. Locking will lock/close doors, opening will unlock/open doors/chests. If you get no result from the lock/open test and have zapped it at yourself already, it's a wand of nothing.
Careful: if there was nothing on the ground when you engraved, your "no message" wand could be polymorph. E-test again!

easy mode

Dwarven Valkyrie

eating

In NetHack, you can eat almost anything that can be eaten, and even some stuff that can't!
Eat items via the 'e' command. Though you can eat mostly everything, not everything is good for you.
Remember, you are what you eat. See the "Last-Bite" rule for more details.
Eating a monster corpse takes an amount of moves equal to three more than one sixty-fourth of the weight of the corpse. This may be more or less than the number of turns if you are fast, very fast, or encumbered.

eating a pet

see {eating_pet}

eating amulets

All amulets except the Amulet of Yendor can be eaten, but only the Amulet of Magical Breathing is worth eating for a chance of gaining the intrinsic. If you are desperate, amulets of ESP and amulets versus poison may give telepathy and poison resistance respectively.
Eating an amulet of strangulation may kill you. Eating an amulet of change may toggle your gender, and eating an amulet of restful sleep may put you to sleep.
Eating amulets (if your form allows, eg as X) gives intrins 1/5 of the time: change, ESP -> telepathy, breathing -> +unbreathing, sleep (1-20 turns every 1-100), strangulation -> 19/20 chance choking death, unchanging -> back to natural form, poison (res).'

eating corpses

see {corpses}

eating for intrinsics

see {corpses}

eating pet

There is nothing special about eating a corpse of your pet. Eating d and f can give you aggravate monster intrinsic as usual corpses do.
However, sacrificing the corpse of a pet that died while tame will anger your god.

eating pets

see {eating_pet}

eating prob

For a handy reference, see [http://www.geocities.com]
The probability of gaining an intrinsic from eating a monster's corpse is in most cases HD/(N*15), where HD is the monster's hit dice and N is the number of intrinsics the monster can convey.
anorexia too.

eating rings

see {edible_rings}

ebenezer scrooge

The sound of Ebenezer Scrooge is heard whilst hallucinating on a level with a vault.

edible amulets

see {eating amulets}

edible rings

Bronze, brass, copper, silver and gold rings can be eaten by any metallivore not restricted to rustprone metals (rock mole or xorn).
Wooden rings can be eaten by gelatinous cubes.
Pearl, iron, twisted, steel, wire, engagement and shiny rings can be eaten by any metallivore (rock mole, rust monster or xorn).
Granite, opal, clay, coral, black onyx, moonstone, tiger eye, jade, agate, topaz, sapphire, ruby, diamond, ivory, and emerald rings cannot be eaten in vanilla 3.4.3.
Rings of gain constitution/strength, when eaten, will raise the appropriate stat, but only as long as the player remains polymorphed.
Polymorph control, protection, protection from shape changes, regeneration, searching, see invisible, invisibility, stealth, teleport control, increase damage/accuracy and warning can all be eaten to gain desirable effects permanently (33% chance). Aggravate monster, conflict, hunger, and polymorph can also be eaten, but usually isn't worth it.
A ring of teleportation can also be eaten for teleportitis, and a ring of free action for sleep resistance.
Eating a ring has a 33% chance of conveying its intrinsic. (20% for eating an amulet) "Magic spreads through your body as you digest the ring|amulet."

efembe

Efembe the Mad Polypiler was a character played by Boudewijn Waijers. This was the character that made the devteam implement limits for polymorphing objects. (Use google groups to find out more)

effects

Configuration option. Set the character symbols for displaying special effects. See Guidebook for more info.

egg

Edible, but might not be healthy. Some eggs will not hatch. Identifying will tell you what species egg it is. Polymorph into a female monster (of a species that lays eggs) to #sit and lay eggs, but doing that will use up nutrition. Egglaying species include snakes, naga, dragons, spiders, and cockatrices. ... And ants and centipedes. ... Maybe some more!
Playing tip: Never eat unidentified random eggs.
See {oviparous_monsters} for a list of creatures which can lay eggs.
A method for pet-IDing cockatrice eggs (for puppies and kitties) is to #name the type of egg you hold "Not Cockatrice", and set it on the ground (don't throw). If the pet won't eat it, re-name to "Hooray, Stoning Grenade!"
If you feel a desire burning within you to eat one of these, they don't break vegetarian and give 80 nutrition. Note that they will often make you sick.
Because nausea confuses you, they're a handy way to get confused for getting different scroll effects.

eidolos

a jerk

eidolos'_library

Wizards always start with a blessed spellbook of force bolt. If you also start with a wand of polymorph, you can poly the spellbook and read it. Repeat a few times to greatly expand your starting repertoire.
You can also polymorph your second book at the same time, but you run a greater risk of shuddering, and it's really only worthwhile if the second book is blessed (so you are guaranteed to learn the spells). You shouldn't be tempted to poly your pet at the same time. You can kill your pet with a bad polymorph (so wait a bit first)
The big criticism of this technique is that after you forget the spells you're in trouble. My response is thus: better to start with the spell and forget it than to never have learned it at all (especially in the first 20k turns when the going is tough for wizards). If you really need the spell, you can write the book with the marker (guaranteed to work since you have ID'd the book)

elbereth

Engraving this word will cause most monsters (including some Quest Nemeses) not to attack you hand-to-hand. Engraving it with a capital 'E' exercises wisdom.
All monsters will respect Elbereth except: pets, peaceful monsters, angelic beings (all 'A'), all '@', Minotaurs, the 3 Riders, werecreatures in animal form if they transformed less than a turn ago (this is a bug), and all monsters blinded by an external source. Intrinsically blind monsters will still respect Elbereth.
Elbereth can occasionally appear as a random engraving; it is not necessarily a sign of a bones file, but it can be.
You have the following chances of messing up each letter if you have a status problem: blind (1/11), confused (1/7), stunned (1/4), or hallucinating (1/2). If you are writing in the dust, each letter has a 1/25 chance of being miswritten; this is a 72% overall probability of successfully writing the word.
Monsters who respect Elbereth will avoid stepping on a square so marked, provided the square contains at least a single item. Monsters can be created (via spawn or create-monster effects) on such a square.
See also: [http://www.steelypips.org]
Also, you need moar Elbereth. No exceptions.
Shopkeepers, guards, aligned/high priests and the Wizard of Yendor will never respect Elbereth, not even when polymorphed.

elbereth 3.6.0

Elbereth has been nerfed in four ways: a) it only works at the start of a line; b) it only works when you're standing on it; c) it erodes when it scares something (always when dusted, but sometimes even when burned); d) it doesn't work in Gehennom or the Planes

elbereth 3.6.1

Compared to NetHack 3.4.3, Elbereth works like this: a) it only works if it's the only text on the square; b) it only works when you're standing on it; c) it disappears (with an alignment penalty) if you take a hostile action towards a monster while standing on it; d) it doesn't work in Gehennom or the Planes

elbereth faq

[http://www.steelypips.org]

elberth

Far, far less useful than Elbereth.

elbreth

name of aartifact

electric eel

Levitation does not prevent the grabbing attack of eels. Furthermore, even if you have protection against grabbing (e.g. oilskin cloak), there is another danger from electric eels: they can shock your rings off when you are surrounded by water.
Therefore, even when you have anti-grabbing countermeasures, be extremely careful when crossing electric-eel-ridden waters with only a ring of levitation.
For anti-grabbing countermeasures, see {giant eel}.
- anselmus (Rog Hum Mal Cha), 196249 points, drowned in a pool of water by an electric eel
Eaten: electric eel Nutr: 250 Intrinsic: Shock: 47%

electric third rail

Just a headstone engraving, nothing to worry about in nethack.

elemental planes

In order of appearance: Earth, air, fire, water and finally astral.
In order to get to the first elemental plane (earth) you must have the real amulet of Yendor and ascend the stairs or quaff a cursed !oGL on dlvl 1. Make sure you have everything you need. There is NO RETURN to the main dungeon. Make sure you have the amulet and it is not a fake.
To get from one plane to another, you must locate the hidden portals on each level. The amulet of Yendor, if worn or wielded, will give clues to the portal's location, otherwise, crystal balls or cursed/confused ?oGD will work just as well (if not better).
Good things to have include a way to dig (earth) and a method of levitation (to move around in air). Also, Air Elementals are particularly nasty, see {air_elemental}.
If you don't have the Amulet in your possession (i.e. stolen), and you step on the portal, nothing will happen, so don't worry about it.

elementary chemistry

In real life, don't dip the water in the acid. In nethack, don't dip the acid in the water.

elementary physics

What goes up, must come down.

elephant stepping on a peanut

see {zoo}

elf

Elves are quick, agile and intelligent, but not very strong. The elves in nethack are not based on Tolkien only, but also on Moorcock and the traditional fairie folk stories. Think of Titania and Oberon.
Elves start with infravision, and gain sleep resistance at experience level 4.
Elves may play the roles of Priest, Ranger or Wizard.
Eating one may yield sleep resistance.
Max stats: Str18 Dex18 Con16 Int20 Wis20 Cha18
Elven wizards and priests start with a random instrument.
Types of elves include: Elvenkings, Elf-lords, Grey-elves, Green-elves, and Woodland-elves.
Eaten: elf Nutr: 350 Effects: Elf Intrinsic: Sleep: 67%

elf-lord

Eaten: elf-lord Nutr: 350 Effects: Elf Intrinsic: Sleep: 53%

elfrist

Chaotic orcish spear, +5 to-hit and +15 to-damage against elves.
One of many joke monster-specific artifacts that are just an obstacle in the way of a good weapon.
Exists in SLASH'EM, not in NetHack.

elven

leather helmet see elven leather helm

elven armour

The elven mithril coat, elven leather helm, elven cloak (faded pall), elven shield (blue and green shield) and elven boots (random appearance) are pieces of elven armor in the game. Unlike normal armour that can only be enchanted at +3 or below without chance of vaporization, elven armour can be enchanted at +5 or below without being vaporized. Thus, with a little luck, elven armour can be enchanted to +7.

elven boots

Leather boots that drop AC by 1 and grant stealth when worn. Their unidentified appearance is random. see {boots}
Also auto-ID when worn if you don't already have stealth.

elven broadsword

see {sword_damage}

elven cloak

Provides stealth and MC1, and improves AC by 1 when unenchanted.
Unidentified appearance is faded pall.

elven dagger

Appearance: A runed dagger. Considered wood not iron, so will rot/burn instead of rust. Interestingly it is reported to be very difficult, if not impossible, to erode. Will deal 1d5 damage against small monsters (compared to 1d4 damage for a regular dagger) but equal against large monsters. Elves have a 1/2 chance of carrying one.

elven leather helm

Made of leather, it won't hinder spell casting and it won't help against falling rock traps. Being elven, it can be enchanted at up to +5 without being vaporized.

elven leather helmet

see elven_leather_helm
see {elven_leather_helmet}

elven mithril-coat

Lowers AC by 5 and weighs 150. Does not rust.
Can be safely enchanted at +5 or below, like all elven armor. So it can be enchanted to a maximum of +7, while most armor can only go to +5.
Gives MC3.

elven mithril coat

see {elven_mithril-coat}

elven shield

A wooden shield that, unenchanted, will drop AC by 2. It has the appearance of 'blue and green shield'.
Weight: 40

elven spear

Does d7 damage to small enemies and d8 damage to large enemies. Unidentified appearance is a "runed spear".

elvenking

Speed 12, AC 10 (but can wear armor), magic resistance 25%, sleep resistant and can grant that. Does 2d4 + 2d4 melee damage.
33% chance of being generated with a pickaxe (100% if on the Plane of Earth). Additionally, 2% chance of a crystal ball.
Eaten: Elvenking Nutr: 350 Effects: Elf Intrinsic: Sleep: 60%

elvish short sword

see {short_sword}

embedded in your skin

like "being worn", but for dsm you were wearing when you were polymorph. i.e., _your_ dragon scales.

emerald

A rare hard green gem worth 2500 zorkmids.
In the main dungeon, emeralds usually won't be seen above dungeon level 10. Aquamarine gems, which can also be green, are much more probable at shallow levels.

emerald ring

An unidentified ring. Cannot be eaten by any monster.

enchant

see {enchantment}

enchant armor

Blessed: makes a cursed armor uncursed and a uncursed armor blessed, cursed enchants with -1, uncursed +1 and blessed +1-3. Enchanting dragon scales makes it dragon scale mail (if blessed, armor is blessed and gains one enchantment).
Confused noncursed repairs and fooproofs (rust/fire/rot/corrode-proofs), confused cursed removes fooproofing.
Armor is safe to enchant from +3 (or +5 if elven or cornuthaum), otherwise there is an 1-in-<current enchantment> chance of it NOT vaporizing the item.
For blessed scrolls: If the enchantment is from 0-2, you'll get +1, +2, or +3. If it's from 3-5, you'll get +1 or +2. If it's from 6-8, you'll get exactly +1. From +9 and on you will gain either nothing or +1. Keep in mind, these only apply if the armor is not vaporized by over-enchanting when applicable.
info {base cost: 80; weight: 5; marker charges: 16}
Only worn armour can be enchanted. For full details of how it's picked, see {some_armor}

enchant armour

see {enchant_armor}

enchant weapon

Cursed disenchants by 1, uncursed enchants by 1. Blessed enchantment depends on weapon enchantment:
+0, +1, +2 are enchanted 1 to 3. +3, +4, +5 are enchanted 1 to 2. After +5, things tend to start vaporizing.
Note that unlike Enchant Armor, a noncursed scroll will only uncurse a cursed weapon; a blessed scroll will not bless an uncursed weapon.
info {cost: 60; weight: 5; charges: 16}
Enchanting worm tooth makes it crysknife instead.
If you're confused when reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon, your wielded weapon is repaired from damage and made rust/fireproof. Reading a cursed scroll while confused will remove said proofing.

enchanting

see {enchantment}

enchanting safely

see {enchantment}

enchantment

It's not safe to enchant armour past +3 (or +5 if elven), or weapons past +5.
If you go beyond the safe enchantment level (i.e. it's not safe to enchant it again), the item will "vibrate unexpectedly".
Also see {Enchantment_Spells}, {enchant_armor}, {enchant_weapon}

enchantment spells

sleep(1),confuse monster(2),slow monster(2),cause fear(3),charm monster(3)
Skilled: Wizard. Basic: Monk, Tourist.

encumbrance

Encumbrance level is determined by your current carrying capacity (see {carrying_capacity}) and how much weight you're carrying beyond that capacity.
The formula is cap = (wt*2 / wc) + 1, where wc is your capacity, and wt is your extra weight.
If the result is 0 or less, you are unencumbered; between 0 and 1, you are burdened; between 1 and 2, you are stressed; between 2 and 3, you are strained; between 3 and 4, you are overtaxed; above 4, you are overloaded.
Thus, if your carrying capacity is 1000 (the maximum), you would be burdened at 1000, stressed at 1500, strained at 2000, overtaxed at 2500, and overloaded at 3000.
The practical aspect of all this is: encumbrance affects your movement rate and how often you get to act. If you have a value greater than 0, put some things down or you're going to die.

endgame

[http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk]

energy vortex

A vortex that engulfs you to deal a small (1d6+0) amount of electric damage. However, attacking it causes a powerful electric passive attack (similar to a blue jelly's cold passive attack). Attacking it in melee without shock resistance is NOT suggested.
...This includes from inside it. If you lack ranged weapons, throwing and picking up your main weapon repeatedly is advised.
While energy vortices have an engulfing energy drain attack specified, it never drains energy because the AD_DREN attack is not implemented for engulfing attacks.

energy vortices

see {energy vortex}

enexto glitch

A glitch in the game: if you #monster while in any 'p' or 't' form and a monster mistakenly moves onto your square, you'll fall onto the nearest empty square. Even if it's on the other side of a wall. Or the other end of the level.
Named for the enexto() function in src/teleport.c which doesn't check for walls correctly. This is now on the buglist as C343-426.

engagement ring

An unidentified ring. *CAN* be eaten by rock moles, rust monsters, and xorns.

engrave id

see {engrave_testing}

engrave identification

see {engrave_testing}

engrave test

see {engrave_testing}

engrave testing

A method of determining what a wand is by engraving some garbage text in the dust with your fingers, then engraving more with the wand to see any effects. Different wands have different messages when engraved with.
If you get the "The bugs on the floor stop moving!", the wand is sleep or death. "The bugs on the floor slow down!" means you have a wand of slow monster.
If you get the message "The engraving on the floor vanishes!", the wand is either make invisible, teleportation, or cancellation. You can further ID by zapping an item and a monster. If nothing appears to happen, it's canc. If both disappear, it's tele. Otherwise, the monster will disappear (or fade), so it's make invis.
A wand of cold will erase an existing burned-in engraving ("The engraving on the floor vanishes!"), then "A few ice cubes drop from the wand"
If the engraving changes substantially (it'll be obvious), then the wand is polymorph. "The bugs on the floor speed up!" means you have a wand of speed monster.
If the wand "unsuccessfully fights your attempt to write", that's a wand of striking you're packing. This is a pun on the word "striking". The message is used in the sense of "I'm going on strike." A wand of magic missile will make the floor "riddled by bullet holes!"
Engraving with a wand of wishing, light, enlightenment or create monster will auto-identify and have the same effect as zapping the wand.
If you get no message, See {e_nomsg} for your options
One can also tell if a gem is hard or soft by engraving with it. Be careful, engraving with a gem takes a long time - 1 letter per turn!
Hard gems are always valuable (good for throwing to unicorns), while soft gems can be either. Remember, shopkeepers won't pay you full price for unid'd gems, even if you know they're valuable!
In the off chance you're playing illiterate, you can still engrave test -- but only engrave a single 'x' or 'X'.
Wands of digging, fire, and lightning will autoid before you write with the wand. You'll probably want to write Elbereth, especially if the wand is fire or lightning.

engrave wresting

A technique to wrest the last charge out of a wand of wishing. It is better than simply zapping it normally because it uses no time on the clock.
Simply attempt to engrave with the wand, and cancel if you don't wrest the wish. Lather, rinse, repeat.
This process can be accelerated by levitating, #adjusting the wand to E, and holding down the E key--that way, you don't have to cancel if the wand doesn't wrest, you just get "You can't reach the floor!" This is sometimes known as "levitation wresting".
Note that this is bug C343-246, "Engraving with an empty wand handles time wrong," and is marked as fixed in next release. For this reason, some players consider this trick to be abusive.

engraving on the floor vanishes

This wand is either a wand of cancellation (base price 200), a wand of make invisible (base price 150), or a wand of teleportation (base price 200). Do not put wand of cancellation into bag of holding.

engraving restrictions

You may not engrave on altars, fountains, water, lava, or air.

engraving vanishes

The message 'The engraving on the <floor> vanishes!' when engraving with a wand means that it is either a wand of cancellation, make invisible, teleportation, or very rarely (if the engraving was burnt in) a wand of cold.
Try zapping this wand at a cursed|blessed item on the floor - cancellation makes it uncursed, teleporation will move the object, and make invisible does nothing.

enlightenment

An effect gained by either quaffing a non-cursed potion of enlightenment or zapping a wand of enlightenment. It informs you of your current properties, and, if from a blessed potion, adds 1 point to your Int and Wis scores. If the potion is cursed, it abuses your wis.
Potions of enlightenment are an ingredient in the alchemy recipe for gain level. Mixing them with levitation has a 60% chance of creating gain level.

entro-p

The Head Honcho of NoeGNUd.
Some of us prefer 'grand poobah'.
What he lacks in skill, he makes up in enthusiasm!
website: [http://www.darkarts.co.za]
has created or revived many nethack and slashem graphical interfaces, among them: noeGNUd, AllegroHack, newt, lizard, Vulture's

entrop

see {entro-p}

eoa

see {eye of the aethiopica}

eota

see {Eye_of_the_Aethiopica}

eoto

see {eyes_of_the_overworld}

epi

see { evil_patch_idea }

epic flail

When you forget to stop levitating after the Plane of Water, and you try to jump on the Astral Plane. "You flail around a little."

erinyes

see {erinys}

erinys

A demon (&) of which only 3 may be generated.
The Punisher of the Unfaithful. Originally called Erinys... later called, Erinyes. Referred to as, "the mist-walking..." and, with fear and respect, "the kindly one". She would harass and injure her prey but not kill them. Homer refers to her in the singular (The Odyssey, 15.234) but, much later (circa 450 B.C.E.), Euripides used the number three and eventually they assumed the names: Tisiphone, Megaera and Alecto.
Lawful demon, making random generation impossible in Gehennom, so these are never randomly generated. May be summoned by other lawful demons, and one is also found in the sanctum.

erkki saaressa

Finnish roguelike. It's harder than Slash'EM!

erosion

Erosion is the general term for bad things that can happen to stuff, to make them less effective.
Iron rusts, cloth and leather burn and rot, wood burns.
With armour, each level of erosion reduces the base armour class by 1. For example, an elven cloak has a base AC of 1.
The first attack takes this to 0, but subseqent attacks don't reduce it below zero.
Enchantment still affects AC - a +2 rotted elven cloak gives you 2AC.
Blessed armour is less likely to erode, and grease protects totally (until it is worn off).
Armor can be erosion proofed by reading a cursed scroll of destroy armor while confused, or by reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor while confused (the latter repairs any damage).
Weapons which are eroded suffer a damage penalty equal to the highest damage level. So a rusted, thoroughly corroded weapon will suffer a -3 damage modifier, not a -4.

escape

see {Escape_Spells}

escape spells

In this group (with their levels) are: jumping(1),haste self(3),invisibility(4),levitation(4),teleport away(6)
Expert: Wizard. Skilled: Rogue, Tourist. Basic: Monk, Ranger, Valkyrie.

escaped

This means a character exited the dungeons (alive) without the Amulet of Yendor.
It is almost like #quit

esp

Extra-Sensory Perception. An amulet of ESP helps you detect nearby monsters even while not blind. Cf. "telepathy".

etched helmet

One of the unidentified helms. It could be a plain helmet (auto-id'd for some chars), helm of brilliance, helm of telepathy, or the dreaded helm of opposite alignment.

ettin

Symbol 'H', speed 12, AC 3, MR% 0, does 2d8+3d6 in melee. Ettins also have a 90% chance to overcome stealth when waking up, and ettins do NOT raise str like a giant.
Eaten: ettin Nutr: 500

eucalyptus

see {eucalyptus_leaf}

eucalyptus leaf

Eat to cure sickness or vomiting. Apply for the same effect as a whistle. When blessed and applied, the leaf will act as a magic whistle, and have a one in 49 chance of unblessing the leaf.
Probably not the best idea against Demogorgon, as it may be rotten.
Considered vegan food. Weighs 1 and gives 30 nutrition.
You might get one from kicking a {tree}.

evil coward

A lawful character using a poisoned weapon to hit a monster will feel "like an evil coward" and get -1 alignment penalty.

evil iggy

A monster from Moria, another roguelike game. Sometimes seen while hallucinating in NetHack.

evil patch

A theoretical variant or patch which combines all the Evil Patch Ideas.
According to some, SLEX is this.
SLEX adds a lot of evil patch ideas on purpose to make the game harder in unfair ways.

evil patch idea

An evil idea for a patch.
Usually not something that makes the game unwinnable, but makes it much more annoying.
Evil Patch ideas were originally not meant to be implemented, their purpose was to serve as a graveyard for bad ideas. Little did anyone expect SLEX would come along and deliberately try to implement as many of them as possible.

excaliber

see {Excalibur}

excalibur

If you're lawful, #dip a longsword into a fountain at experience level 5 or higher and you may get this excellent artifact.
Gives automatic searching, level drain resist, and a damage bonus vs. everything.
There is a 1/6 chance of your longsword being turned into Excalibur regardless of class, so if you're lawful, keep #dipping.
Makes monsters more likely to track you, and will ensure any demon prince is generated hostile. Talking to demon princes whilst wielding this weapon will also make them hostile.
When your long sword is transformed into Excalibur, it is blessed, repaired of all damage, and rustproofed. It also keeps its enchantment.
Has +d5 to hit vs. a regular longsword and +d10 to damage.
Don't dip for Excalibur in Minetown. It _will_ dry up the fountain which will annoy the guards (even if you're nonlawful). You get no trickle warning.
Also, don't try dipping a katana--only an actual longsword works. Dipping your katana will just happily summon water demons and grant you a thoroughly rusty katana.

expensive camera

Has 29 to 99 charges when generated, with a maximum of 127. Can be used to blind monsters by (a)pplying. Cursed has a 50% chance to blind you.
Applying this towards any seeing monster at point-blank range will blind that monster permanently.

experience level

see {experience levels}

experience levels

Experience needed to gain a level: 2=20, 3=40, 4=80, 5=160, 6=320, 7=640, 8=1280, 9=2560, 10=5120, 11=10k, 12=20k, 13=40k, 14=80k, 15=160k, 16=320k, 17=640k, 18=1.28m, 19=2.56m, 20=5.12m, 21=10m, 22=20m, 23=30m, 24=40m, 25=50m, 26=60m, 27=70m, 28=80m, 29=90m, 30=100m
Notice that experience required to reach "level" is given by 10*2^(level-1) from levels two to ten, and 10k*2^(level-11) from levels 11 to 20. Beyond that, it is given by 10mil*(level-20).
You can't go beyond level 30.

expert

+3 to hit, +2 to damage. (-3 to hit, +1 to damage when two-weaponing.)
Takes 180 hits, and three experience levels to advance from skilled to expert.
+2 damage when riding, +2 to bare-handed damage, +6 to martial arts damage.

exploding rune

If you're killed by one of these, it meant you read a spellbook unsucessfully and it blew up in your face.

explore mode

Playing in explore mode makes NetHack ask whether you want to die or not. This also ruins the fun.
To enter this mode, just hit "X" during a running game or enter "nethack -X" on the command line.
Generally unavailable on servers.

extinct

see {extinction}

extinct patch

The extinct patch by Wingnut/Jukka Lahtinen lists extinct species along with genocided species when the game ends.
Genociding an extinct species results in the species not being flagged as extinct. Thus, it will not contribute to the total number of extincted monsters reported.

extinction

This occurs when 120 of a certain monster type are generated. Methods that respect extinction can no longer be used to generate that type of monster afterwards. Not to be confused with genocide.
Djinn and ghosts can also be made extinct, but extinction for these two is only respected when generated from a potion or magic lamp.
Refer to [http://www.steelypips.org] for more detail.
Only 9 Nazgul can be created; 3 erinyes; only 1 each for a unique monster (besides the Wizard of Yendor)
Species both genocided and extinct will be reported as only having been genocided at the end.

extinctionist

A style of play in which one attempts to extinct or genocide as many monsters as possible.
Usually done with the create monster spell. The Eye of the Aethiopica is very useful for the fast energy regeneration.
This takes very long.
[http://groups.google.com]
[http://www.steelypips.org]

extmenu

Configuration option. Does extended commands interface pop up a menu?

extrinsic

see {property}

eye of aethiopica

see {eye of the aethiopica}

eye of misspelling

see {eye_of_the_aethiopica}

eye of tapioca

see {eye of the aethiopica}

eye of the aethiopica

The Wizard's quest artifact; grants energy regeneration, reduces spell damage by half, and confers magic resistance when carried. When invoked, it opens a portal to a visited dungeon branch of your choice.
As an amulet of ESP, it naturally grants telepathy when worn.
Also known as the Eye of Tapioca, due to its difficult spelling.
While normally a neutral artifact, its alignment is adjusted to the wizard's starting alignment.
When you port to another branch, you always end up at either the entry level or the deepest level you've seen. You go to the former if above or on the entrance to the branch level. You go to the latter if below the entrance. This means, among other things, that you'll always end up at the deepest part of the Dungeons when you branchport in.

eye of the misspelling

see {eye_of_the_aethiopica}

eye of the tapioca

see {eye of the aethiopica}

eyes

see {Eyes_of_the_Overworld}

eyes of the overworld

The Eyes of the Overworld is the monk quest artifact. A pair of lenses that, if carried, provides magic resistance, and if worn, provides X-ray vision and prevents stunning by Archons' radiant gaze. #invoke for enlightenment. It's normally a neutral artifact, but will be adjusted for the monk's starting alignment.
This vision lets you see every square that would be illuminated by a magic lamp, even if there are walls in the way.

f

Command: 'f' Fire ammunition from quiver. You'll have to be wielding the launcher to shoot the ammo with it.
Command: 'F' Fight a monster, even if you don't know there is a monster.
Monster: 'f' Felines. kitten, housecat, jaguar, lynx, panther, large cat and tiger.
Monster: 'F' Stuff that grows in your fridge. Includes lichen, brown|yellow|green|red mold, shrieker, and violet fungus.
Command: 'Meta-f' Same as '#force'.

faded pall

see {elven cloak}

fainting

see {nutrition}

falcon's eye

Slightly outdated isometric interface to NetHack, [http://www.hut.fi]
The noegnud interface seems to have more attention now.
there is an active fork of this project called vulture's

falcons eye

It's Falcon's Eye, with an apostrophe.

falling rock trap

AKA kitty killer
Does exactly what it says on the tin. A hard helmet is advisable.

falselobster

see {wishful thinking}

falters

"<x> falters". The equivalent to "<x> staggers" for legless nonflying creatures. or maybe snakes only.

falters for a moment

Famine just hit your pet.

famine

Nasty fellow that's found on the astral plane. Attack makes you hungry (makes you lose 40-79 nutrition). Resistant to almost everything.
It is not resistant to drain life and death magic, though, so those two work like a charm. Especially if you can repeatedly drain his level to the point that any leveldrain is an instakill.
Revelation 6:4-5 "..And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine."
Eaten: Famine Nutr: 1 Effects: DIE

farlook

The ; key. Press it when you don't know what something is.

farmbot

[http://scavenger.homeip.net]

farvel

think "farewell", not "Carvel Ice Cream Cakes", unless you get it as an ascension message. You just lost a level there, champ.

fast

Also know as intrinsic speed. If you are "fast" then every turn you have a 2/3rds chance of getting 6 extra speed points.
/oSpeed will make its target fast, while eating a quantum mechanic's corpse will toggle speed between fast and normal.
If you are already fast, getting hit by a skeleton or shade, eating a quantum mechanic corpse or getting hit with a wand of slow monster will make you lose your intrinsic speed

fast ascension

Fast ascensions as considered by this entry refer to the number of turns in a game, not real hours and minutes time. BilldaCat has the fastest known ascension with 2130 turns, using stuffed bones.
You can find the writeup of the ascesion here: [http://groups.google.com]
Another good, fast ascension was done by Marvin in 8683 turns. You can read all about Wimp the Wizard here: [http://groups.google.com]
A discussion of theoretical ascension turn limits can be found here: [http://groups.google.com]

fastest death

Death to Grayswandir autopickup on the Dlvl:1 upstairs: [http://tasvideos.org]

fasting

If you're a monk and you hit the "weak" state of hunger, your wisdom will be exercised. Only hitting "Weak" is necessary, you don't have to stay that way for any great length of time.

fauchard

A polearm with d6 damage versus small, d8 damage versus large. Its unidentified appearance is a pole sickle.
Weight 60, cost 5, material iron.

fedora

Cloth armour that fits in the helmet slot and, unenchanted, does not result in an AC drop. Being cloth, it doesn't protect against falling rock traps either.
Part of the starting inventory of an Archaeologist.

fee fie foe foo!

"<giant> shouts "Fee Fie Foe Foo!" and guffaws." Has a chance of happening when you #chat to a hostile giant. Wakes up nearby monsters.

feel jumpy

see {teleportitis}

feeling of inadequacy

"You have a feeling of inadequacy." You're trying to mollify an angry god, but your sacrifices aren't big enough (monster level). Try cross-aligned unicorns, too; unless you're chaotic. They won't help.
Chaotics require difficulty-12 monsters to mollify their god; see {mollify_chaotic_god} for a list.
Yet another reason not to play chaotic. :)

feeling of loss

"A feeling of loss comes over you." You dipped an non-cursed item in a fountain, which would have been uncursed if it were cursed. Nothing happened.
"You have a feeling of loss." You attempted to charge something which cannot be charged -- the chance to charge is wasted.

feeling of reconciliation

You should be able to #pray now.
If your luck is negative it is still not safe to pray. (Check for cursed luckstones)

feels amplified

see {your health currently feels amplified}

feels uneasy

see {uneasy_feeling}

fell onto a sink

Death from de-levitating by floating over a sink. HP loss is d8 + (25-CON). Abuses DEX. If wielding a trice corpse, it will stone you like falling into other traps. If a weapon or weapon-tool is on the sink, an additional d3 damage is applied and CON is abused.

fencing gloves

see {gloves}

feverish

"You feel feverish." You've just contracted lycanthropy from a bite from a werejackal, wererat or werewolf in animal form.
To cure the lycanthropy you can eat a sprig of wolfsbane, drink holy water or pray.

field of force

Some bits of your armor nearly got destroyed by a magic creature, but you have MR, so it's still there.

fighter

see {valkyrie}

figurine

Apply a figurine to create a monster. Blessed figurines have 80% chance of giving a pet.
Cursed figurines usually give hostile monsters, and may transform spontaneously some time after you pick them up.
Figurines can create monsters regardless of extinction. Genocided monsters cannot be created.
A magical tool for polypiling purposes.

finger of death

Wand of death in spell form. Instantly kills the living who do not have magic resistance. Being a ray, it can be reflected, and it can also just plain bounce off a wall and kill you if you do not have MR or reflection.
Do NOT zap it at . (yourself) and be sure to aim it, as it will kill you instantly even if you have magic resistance. Unlike magic missile.

fiqhack

A NetHack variant based off NetHack4 with (additional) quality of life improvements, major monster AI improvements and enhances monster/player symmetry, Also refactors code. See [https://nethackwiki.com]

fire ant

Diff 6, Lvl 3. These appear in groups and do fire damage, which can be deadly in early game.
A supporting cast member of Team Ant.
Eating their corpse may grant fire resistance.
Fire ants have 10% magic resistance.
Eaten: fire ant Nutr: 10 Intrinsic: Fire: 20%

fire brand

see {firebrand}

fire elemental

Level 8, speed 12, AC 2. Hits for 3d6 fire-based damage, and has a passive (level + 1)d4 fire-based attack as well.

fire giant

Fire giants have a base speed of 12, base AC 4, MR of 5%. Eating one may grant fire resistance, and a bonus to strength.
Eaten: fire giant Nutr: 750 Effects: Strength Intrinsic: Fire: 60%

fire horn

A magic horn that shoots a directional beam of fire when applied. Base cost 50 zorkmids. Generated with 4-8 charges.
It can be used as an instrument (for raising/lowering the Castle drawbridge) if you decline to improvise.
Answering no to the "Improvise?" prompt lets you use the horn as a musical instrument without using up any charges.

fireball

Fires a ray that explodes when it reaches a monster(centered on its location) or an obstacle(centered on the sqaure immediately before it). The eight surrounding squares are affected. see spoiler spl2-343 for more details.
If you are skilled or expert, you choose a location to cast explosions of fire. 2 to 9 explosions occur, the first one at the chosen point, each of the following occur at any of the 9 around that square.

firebrand

An excellent early/midgame artifact weapon, due to its 2x fire damage. Unfortunately, since most major demons (and Rodney), are fire-resistant, Fire Brand tends to be less effective in lategame.
Its base item is a long sword.

firm

The phrase "You feel very firm" means you've picked up the disintegration resistance intrinsic. Go piss off $DEITY right away!

fishpool

A public NetHack server [http://www.pp.fishpool.fi] with a channel #NetHack on IRCnet.
If you're on the EU side of the swimming pool, you may find this server to have low latency.
The longest-running active nethack server in the world.

fishpool.fi

see {fishpool}

fitnr

Fixed In The Next Release.

fixed

"fixed" is officially only used for crysknives, but as the fixed bit is the same as rust/rot/corrode/fooproof bit (for now), they're synonymous.

fixinv

Configuration option. An object's inventory letter sticks to it when it's dropped.

flail

Flail is a weapon. Does 1d6+1 for small and 2d4 for large monsters. It is one-handed weapon and uses its own 'flail' weapon skill.

flash of light

Unless you've just sacrificed something, it means you've hit a magic trap and monsters have been generated, but you can't be blinded (Sunsword, Eyes of the Overworld, etc.).
Otherwise, see {#offer}

fleeing forward

The strategy you use after waking Rodney. You should always refer to this as "Fleeing Forward" (quotation marks included)

flesh golem

Eaten: flesh golem Nutr: 600 Intrinsic: Fire: 12%, Cold: 12%, Sleep: 12%, Shock: 12%, Poison: 12%

flickers considerably

Your oil lamp is running low on oil.

flickers for a moment,_then dies

Assuming you just tried to (a)pply a lamp to turn it on, this probably means it's cursed. Cursed lamps have a chance to not activate.
On the plus side, if you were (a)pplying a lamp then it's somewhat likely to be magic! Now to find some holy water...

flint

Yet another gray stone. Pretty useless, but does slightly more damage than normal rocks when slung.
Eating non-cursed flint stone gives "Yabba-dabba delicious!" message and exercises constitution.
Well, it would... if there were any creatures in NetHack that could eat them.

flint stone

see {flint}

flintstone

Costs 1 gp. Does more damage when thrown/slung. Generally useless.

floating eye

This innocent-looking blue e is the demise of many unwary adventurers, even though it does no damage.
Eating its corpse grants telepathy.
Hitting them in melee normally results in being frozen for many turns, making them the most common cause of "while helpless" deaths. So kill them from range, with reflection, while either one of you is blind, or while the eye is invisible to you.
Putting the eye to sleep does not help, nor does turning yourself invisible; instead, turn the eye invisible (unless you have see invisible).
You can freeze it by (a)pplying a mirror in its direction.
<Eidolos> Today's fun fact: Making a floating eye invisible is only helpful for avoiding the gaze if you cannot see invisible floating eyes.
<Rodney> Eidolos (Mon Hum Mal Neu), 6522 points, killed by a gold golem, while helpless
You can safely throw junk at a floating eye while right next to it, without fear of getting frozen (but don't attack it in melee!)
Eaten: floating eye Nutr: 10 Intrinsic: Telepathy: 100%
On NAO, adding "MONSTERCOLOR='floating eye':lightmagenta" to your configuration file might help avoid them, or at least notice them.

flourite

see {fluorite}

fluffy the kamikaze trap finder

RGRN humor referencing how skilled pets are good at dying from traps (e.g. falling rock) on DL1 or thereabouts.

fluorite

A soft green, blue, white or violet gem worth 400 zorkmids.

flute

Either a wooden flute or a magic flute.
The wooden flute's base price is 12zm and the magic flute's is 36zm.

flutters

"<x> flutters". The equivalent to "<x> staggers" for flying creatures.

fod

Finger of Death, the most powerful attack spell there is.

fog cloud

A cloud. Engulfs you, and can occasionally kill a level 1 char, if they don't fight back. Handy place to rest from higher level monsters.

follower

see {followers}

followers

Monsters which follow you across staircases, level teleports, trapdoors etc. are the Wizard of Yendor, angry shopkeepers, gremlins, stalkers, salamanders, ghosts, shades, mercenaries (soldiers etc. and watchmen/captains), Croesus, all quest nemeses, all zombies (Z except ghoul, skeleton), all i, t, A, T, &, V, W, and pets.
Sleeping followers will not follow. Remember this if you have stealth and are trying to use levelporting to lure wraiths from a graveyard. Monsters with the Amulet of Yendor won't follow across levels. Monsters other than the Wizard of Yendor and shopkeepers won't follow if they're fleeing unless you have the Amulet of Yendor.
Note that liches are NOT followers, but they will escape up stairs if you are nearby and they are deeply hurt. (They're very sensitive, you know.)

foo

Also known as a metasyntactic variable. Variable that stands for something in the metalanguage of a discussion.
A term used for a variable in a name. Foocubus could be either an incubus or a succubus, footrice could be cockatrice or chickatrice.

foobane

Generic name for artifacts giving double damage against specific monsters, but are otherwise less than useful.
These include Dragonbane, Trollsbane, Werebane, etc.
Artiwishers generally don't like receiving one by their gods, as it reduces artiwish success rate.

foocubi

plural of foocubus.
Your VChip has blocked access.

foocubus

Incubus (male) or succubus (female). Known for temptation, and a potential teacher for characters of the opposite sex, but beware of their bite!
A good way to get rid of cursed armor, but always remember, you look silly in your underwear, so get dressed before you face monsters!
An incubus may place a ring of adornment from your inventory on your finger, so watch out for potential consequences of removing one of your rings. A succubus may take a ring of adornment from your finger and keep it for herself.
"With my succubus, I learned to thrust AND parry!"
The chance of a positive effect is (Cha + Int + 1)/35, and will bump up your level, con, wis, or energy.
Avoid playing with a foocubus while wielding a footrice corpse.
See spoiler at [https://nethackwiki.com]

food appraisal

After reading a blessed scroll of food detection or casting the spell of detect food at skilled or better, you'll be warned if the food you are about to eat is tainted, will petrify, slime, be rotten, break Monk's vegetarian conduct, be acidic, be rustproof (if you are a rust monster) break vegan, or break vegetarian conduct (in that order).
Only lasts until you receive a warning.

food consumption

Normally you consume 1 point per turn for normal food consumption, but having slow digestion or polymorphing into a monster that does not eat will get rid of this.
Spell casting, using #monster, and laying eggs will all increase hunger.
Wizards with enough Int consume less or no food for casting spells. 14 or less = same consumption, 15 = 1/2 consumption, 16 = 1/4 consumption, 17 or more = no comsumption
Worn rings and amulets, fighting, heavy encumbrance, regeneration and conflict increase food consumption.
Rings of slow digestion still cause ring hunger when worn, and two rings of slow digestion will actually make you hungry faster.

food poisoning

If you eat a corpse that is too old, you will "feel deathly sick". Death follows in 10-19 turns (reduced if eat additional tainted food) if not cured.
If you are in your wereform after acquiring lycanthropy, you do not return to human form, it is permanent death.
Cures are: Blessed potion of healing, non-cursed full/extra healing, holy water (unless chaotic), eucalyptus leaf, the Cure Sickness spell, and unihorn. You can also #pray or poly into your own form or a sickness-resistant monster, or vomit.

food ration

Typically a marmite sandwich, may also be a fish protein module or falafel. Takes 5 turns to consume, base price 45zm, weighs 20, and provides 800 nutrition points.
This item is considered Vegan for eating purposes.

food shop

see {delicatessen}

food weight

tripe ration: 10. egg: 1. kelp frond: 1. eucalyptus leaf: 1. apple, orange, pear, banana, carrot: 2. melon: 5. sprig of wolfsbane: 1. clove of garlic: 1. slime mold (fruit): 5. lump of royal jelly: 2. cream pie: 10. candy bar: 2. fortune cookie: 1. pancake: 2. lembas wafer: 5. cram ration: 15. food ration: 20. K-ration: 10. C-ration: 10. tin (any): 10.

foodless

If you're going for foodless, =oSD is the number one priority. Don't cast spells except in emergency. Coaligned altar to take the edge off your prayer timeout (but watch out for artifact gifts). B/U/C !oBooze and !oFJ give 30/20/10 nutrition. u!oWater gives d10 nutrition.
Ways to fill your stomach: pray when weak or fainting, starve while wearing "oLS, polyself.
If you're attempting a foodless wizard, {hungerless casting} will help loads.

foodless polyless atheist

Yes, it's been done (and more, I'm sure.) see: [http://groups.google.com]

foodpois

see {food_poisoning}

foofed

Demolishated, destroyed, or otherwise rendered into Something Unuseful.

fooproof

'rustproof', 'corrodeproof', 'fireproof', and 'fixed' are synonymous within the game and any can be used successfully in a wish. Which word appears depends on the material of the item. All cloth, leather, wood, and plastic items are "fireproof", all iron items are "rustproof". Bronze plate mail is "corrodeproof" and only the crysknife is "fixed".
Wishing for "fireproof" metal items results in "rustproof" ones, etc.

footrice

Cockatrice and/or chickatrice.

footrices

The plural of "footrice".

forbidding feeling

The temple you just entered is not coaligned.
Also caused by entering a coaligned temple while your alignment is very bad.

force bolt

Level 1 attack spell, spellbook has base price 100.
This spell will destroy boulders and statues, and drawbridges, and mirrors, and potions, ....
Deals 2d12 points of damage.

force seems smaller

"The water's force seems smaller now." Don't feel bad, since you just tossed a (probably cursed) negative ring of increase damage down the drain.

forest centaur

Speed 18, AC 3, magic resistance 10%, kicks for 1d6 damage and uses weapon for 1d8.
Eaten: forest centaur Nutr: 600

forked polearm

see {spetum}

fort knox

a.k.a. "Fort Ludios"

fort ludicrous

An alternate name for Fort Ludios

fort ludios

Also jokingly called Fort Ludicrous for the amount of gold and equipment you can get from there.
The home of Croesus, a special level to which a magic portal may be generated in a gold vault between level 11 and Medusa's level.
It is not always generated.
There is a 77% chance of Fort Ludios existing in a single game.

fortune cookie

A not very nourishing food item. Contains a message that may or may not be true. The truth of the message depends on the B/U/C status of the cookie; blessed ones are always true, cursed always false, while uncursed ones are randomly either true or false
It can be used to tame anything that is tamed by eating tripe, such as cats and dogs.

fountain

Quaffing from most fountains will (9/30) do nothing or give you a little nutrition. It's less likely (1/30) to enlighten you, make you vomit, poison you, curse some stuff, grant you see-invisible, detect monsters, create a gem, scare monsters, overflow to nearby squares, summon snakes, a nymph or a water demon. Water demons may grant a wish (see ?? water demon)
There is a 1/3 chance quaffing will dry up the fountain.
Dipping an item into the fountain has no effect most of the time, but will occasionally uncurse items (4/30), and 1/30 chance of most of the bad effects under quaffing.
1/7th of fountains are magic. Quaffing a magic fountain with positive luck has a 3/10 chance of refreshing you (small amount of nutrition) and a 7/10 chance of having the same effect as a blessed potion of restore ability and a uncursed potion of gain ability. (if luck >4, then a blessed potion of gain ability.) After this effect the fountain is now not magic.
Digging on a fountain square will cause the fountain to overflow, which makes pools of water up to several squares away, but never under you. This can be a good way to get unlimited water with which to blank scrolls, dilute potions, or accidentally drown Izchak. Don't do it in minetown.
Fountains in minetown will give you a warning before they're about to expire. If you use them after that, the fountain will disappear and the watch will attack you.
If you dip a longsword into a fountain and obtain Excalibur the fountain disappears without warning.
Also see ?? excalibur.

fountain gambit

A playing style in which you quaff from or #dip into fountains with your low-level character. The potential reward of a wish is considered by some players enough to overcome the far-more-likely outcome of death by water moccasin or hostile water demon. Since it's only a low-level character, if you die you didn't lose much; but if you get a wish, you gain enormously.
Doing the fountain gambit with a wizard has a chance of surviving thanks to force bolt and continous level ups (including hp + pw increase).
Other players dislike this practice and compare it to #quitting and restarting until a blessed magic lamp is generated in the first room.
The expected value of 100 first-level fountains is two wishes, eight hostile water demons, ten groups of snakes, and ten nymphs. Lower down in the dungeon you will get less wishes and more hostile water demons.

fountain gambling

see {fountain_gambit}

fountain quaffing

A strategy that's nearly always a stupid idea.
Also see {fountain}.

fountaineering

see {fountain quaffing}

four-leaf clover

You got a luck bonus; if your base luck was negative it is now at least 0. You can pray, too. If your luck allows for it that is.

four leaf clover

see {four-leaf clover}

fox

Difficulty 1, level 0, speed 15, AC 7, monster-MR 0. Attacks with a bite for 1d3. Its corpse is safe to eat and provides 250 nutrition, but conveys no intrinsics.
Eaten: fox Nutr: 250

fr

Abbreviation for "feature request." Often used in a joking way, particularly by people who hang out in that other game's channel.
See also {yani}.

fragile

"You feel fragile! You haven't been watching your health." You just lost one point of constitution. Use a unicorn horn to get it back quickly.

free action

Protects against paralysis attacks of gelatinous cubes, guardian nagas, ghouls, shades and Yeenoghu. Also protects against passive paralysis attacks of gelatinous cubes and floating eyes. Paralysis and stunning spells cast by monsters have their effect reduced to one turn. Protects against quaffed or thrown potions of paralysis or sleeping.
Protects against paralysis effect of chest traps. Protects against self-paralysis from looking into a mirror as a floating eye.
Does not protect against wands of sleep or orange dragon breath.
The base cost of this ring is 200.

freezing mist

You dipped an ordinary long sword into a fountain, were at least XL 5 and not lawful. Instead of being turned into Excalibur, your sword was cursed, lost any rustproofing, may have lost an enchantment, and you abused your wisdom. So don't do that.

fremen

To ascend with the Fremen conduct, the following conditions should be followed:
A stillsuit (oilskin cloak) must be worn as quickly as possible. Some say that if a fremen goes more than 5,000 turns without obtaining one is sure to die of dehydration.
Water is to be treasured and kept un-polluted. Hence, you will never waste potions of water by #dipping things into them, or pollute sources of water by #dipping anything into pools or fountains.
The preferred weapon is, of course, a crysknife (enchanted worm tooth), though poisoned and non-poisoned weapons are also quite acceptable. To perform a "Feyd-Rautha", #twoweapon a large blade and a small blade, but only conceal your poison on one of them.
In credit to the movie, the elven dagger named Sting is also an encouraged weapon
Sadly, long worms are not rideable in NetHack, though if you can manage to tame one or two, bonus props may also be given.
Other items to carry are: a large box named pain, a wand of death named Gom Jabbar, a leather drum named thumper, and (if you're a follower of the movie) a wand of striking/magic missile named weirding module.
Tame dust vortices are also encouraged to be pets of one of the desert such as yourself.
Roles: Rogue or barbarian is encouraged, though rangers and cavemen are acceptable as well. No wizards, tourists, valkries (completely opposite environments), healers, priests or samurai.

friday 13 new moon

A list of days that are both Friday 13 and a new moon is available here: [http://tasvideos.org]

friday 13th

see {friday_the_13th}

friday the 13th

On Friday the 13th, base luck in NetHack is -1, instead of 0. (Note that prayers _will_ fail, and wishes _may_ fail with negative luck.)
Also known as "Helpless Day" due to people who try to pray, fail, and die while helpless.
Full Moon and Friday the 13th cancel each other out.

friday the thirteenth

see {friday_the_13th}

frost brand

A longsword that does double damage against monsters not resistant to cold. Can destroy potions carried by monsters.
Also confers cold resistance while wielded.
It kills stuff. Use it.

frost giant

Frost giants have a base speed of 12, base AC 3, MR of 10%. Eating one may grant cold resistance, and a bonus to strength.
Eaten: frost giant Nutr: 750 Effects: Strength Intrinsic: Cold: 33%

frost horn

Magical, charged tool, base cost of 50 zorkmids. When applied, fires a bolt of cold, similar to a wand of cold.
Can also be used to play the tune for the Castle's drawbridge.
The frost horn acts identically to a wand of cold except it can be recharged infinitely, and deals 6-66 points of damage as opposed to 6-36.
Answering no to the "Improvise?" prompt lets you use the horn as a musical instrument without using up any charges.

frostbrand

see {frost_brand}

frosty

see {frost_brand}

fruit

Configuration option. User-defineable fruit, eg. "fruit:mango". Default is "slime mold".
Weighs 5, provides 250 nutrition, takes 1 turn to eat, and doesn't break vegan or vegetarian conduct.
A list of used fruit names (in addition to pets) is available at [http://alt.org]

fruit juice

Potion which gives you 30/20/10 nutrition if it's blessed, uncursed, or cursed respectively.
Nutritional value is halved if diluted. It can be created from a potion of sickness by #dipping a unicorn horn in it, or from a potion of booze by #dipping an amethyst in it, or from a potion of sickness or see invisible by cancelling it.
Base price is 50, same as the potion of see invisible.

fruitname

see {fruit}

fsck

Filesystem check.

ftw

"For the win"

fuck you

see {foocubus}

full

see {satisfied}

full healing

see {potion_of_full_healing}

full moon

When the moon is full, your base luck is +1 instead of its usual value of 0.
Werefoo are much more likely to be in their creature form during a full moon, especially during nighttime (see {night}).
also, tame dogs will reply with "[Dogley] howls." when chatted during a full moon, and are much harder to tame during full moon nights.
NetHack considers the full moon to last for three or four days. Use Rodney's !pom trigger to get the current moon phase according to NetHack.

fumble

Fumble gloves and boots cause you to be very clumsy, and abuse your dexterity every 5 moves. They are usually cursed. You will trip over objects and yourself, and you will fall down stairs. Watch out!

fumble boots

See fumble.
These leather boots drop AC by 1 and cause fumbling when worn. They also tend to be cursed. Their unidentified appearance is random - see boots.

fumble gloves

see {fumble}

fun

NetHack.

fuschia

dragon with a FOO attack. Wearing fuschia dsm grants FOO resistance.

g

Command: 'g' Run in direction until something interesting is seen.
Command: 'G' Run in direction until something interesting is seen, except branching corridors aren't considered interesting.
Monster: 'g' Gremlins and (winged) gargoyles.
Monster: 'G' Gnoses, er, gnomes. In addition to the regular 'gnome', there are gnome lords, wizards, and kings.

gain energy

In NetHack 3.6, a potion of gain energy increases maximum energy by 3d6 if blessed, 2d6 if uncursed, and *negative* 1d6 if cursed, then raises or lowers your current energy by three times the change (capped at maximum or 0 energy).
Also useful in alchemy: mix with healing/extra healing/full healing to get extra healing/full healing/gain ability. Gain energy + confusion may yield enlightenment (1/3 chance) or booze (2/3 chance).

game of moloch

Slower than walking, but faster than standing still. Fits regexp 'C..w.'.

gargoyle

Speed 10, AC -4, stoning resistant, does 2d6 + 2d6 + 2d4 damage.
Eaten: gargoyle Nutr: 200

garlic

A wielded clove of garlic does one damage, and will make undead flee for 2d4 more turns. NOTE: Undead includes liches, but not demons (and definitely not lichens).
If you're undead, eating this will cause you to vomit.
Leaving garlic on a square will prevent non-ghost undead from walking on it. Unlike Elbereth however, it will not prevent them from attacking.
Weighs 1 and gives 40 nutrition.

garnet

A soft red gem worth 700 zorkmids.

garter snake

A low level monster that isn't poisonous and doesn't convey any resistances.
Eaten: garter snake Nutr: 60

gas spore

When this monster dies (if you or another monster kills it) it generates a 3x3 explosion. If you are the perp, it angers peaceful monsters.
Be careful because if you kill a gas spore and the explosion kills a pet, you get the blame.
Deals 4d6 damage, low XL players beware.
Fluffy hits the gas spore. The gas spore explodes! You die... Fluffy hears the rumble of distant thunder.

gaulgath

One of the lousiest players ever to grace NAO. Once actually managed to die on the plane of air.

gaulgath's law

For every good thing that happens in your NetHack game, the odds of a traumatic event occuring increases by one.

gauntlets of dexterity

Sometimes abbreviated as GoD, these leather gauntlets add their enchantment to your dexterity. Good choice for spellcasters. If not enchanted, they will not auto-ID when worn.

gauntlets of fumbling

In exchange for a drop of 1 AC, these gloves will make you occasionally fumble. To make matters worse, these gloves tend to be cursed.

gauntlets of power

Frequently abbreviated as GoP or [oP, these iron gauntlets will increase your strength to 25, and reduce your AC by 1.
These also hinder spell casting and firing from a bow.
They weigh 30, unlike other gloves, which weigh 10 each.

gazatteer

see {gazetteer}

gazeteer

see {gazetteer}

gazetteer

Dylan O'Donnell's NetHack Gazetteer, showing all special levels of the game; available at [http://www.spod-central.org]
Mirrors: [http://nethack.uib.no]

gdsm

Either {gray dragon scale mail} or {green dragon scale mail}

gecko

Eaten: gecko Nutr: 20

gehennom

Hell, and with all the mazes, it's boring as hell.
Bring a pickaxe to speed things up.
You cannot pray to your god there, so you'd better prepare some holy water before entering.
Downward-extending branch consisting of 20-24 levels, reached via the trapdoors in the castle. You cannot pray to your god in Gehennom.
Note: the Valley of the Dead is included in Gehennom.

gelatinous cube

Speed 6, AC 8, resistant to fire, cold, sleep, shock, poison, acid and stoning, and eating its corpse can give fire, cold, sleep or shock resistance. Does 2d4 damage and can paralyze, and 1d4 when killed in melee.
Will engulf almost anything except boulders and balls of punishment attached to the player.
Anything organic is then digested, including any containers except ice boxes.
The contents are then engulfed, and anything organic in the container is then eaten.
Fortunately they respect E, and are intrinsically blind, so can't normally engulf stashes with E burned under them.
Eating a corpse of a gelatinous cube does not break vegan conduct.
Eaten: gelatinous cube Nutr: 150 V! Effects: Acidic Intrinsic: Fire: 10%, Cold: 10%, Sleep: 10%, Shock: 10%

gem

see {gems}

gem weight

All gems and glass weigh 1. Loadstones weigh 500. All other gray stones and rocks weigh 10.

gems

Gems are expensive rocks. Hard gems engrave slowly in the floor, while soft ones write quickly in the dust. When testing gems by engraving, you can escape the prompt to avoid taking the time to engrave. There aren't any hard yellow or violet gems, so you can skip testing those.
See [https://nethackwiki.com] and [http://www.steelypips.org]

gender

Configuration option. Your starting gender ("gender:male" or "gender:female"). Cannot be set in-game.

general store

A shop. Sells and buys everything except worthless items.
General stores are run by shopkeepers named: Hebiwerie. Possogroenoe, Asidonhopo, Manlobbi, Adjama, Pakka Pakka, Kabalebo, Wonotobo, Akalapi, Sipaliwini, Annootok, Upernavik, Angmagssalik,Aklavik, Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, Chicoutimi, Ouiatchouane, Chibougamau,Matagami, Kipawa, Kinojevis,Abitibi, Maganasipi, Akureyri, Kopasker, Budereyri, Akranes, Bordeyri, or Holmavik

genocidable

You cannot genocide any AE&' (except stalkers), aligned/high priests, generic "elf"/"human", ghosts, player-monsters, quest-specific monsters, salamanders, shopkeepers, skeletons, titans, vault guards, werecreatures, or unique monsters. Everything else is fair game. Exception: a genocide that would hit /you/ always works, whether by race or role.

genocide

Scrolls of genocide remove monsters (uncursed) or classes of monsters (blessed) from the game. Cursed scrolls summon a group of monsters. Be careful not to genocide yourself! This is easier to do than you might think; be sure not to genocide h for mind flayers if a dwarf, and note that spelling "master mind flayer" "master mindflayer" will kill you if a monk. Also be careful since genociding a monster CANNOT be undone. Ever.
Popular genocides include 'L' (lich class) ';' (eel class, instakillers) 'h' (includes mind flayers, DO NOT class-genocide if you are a dwarf) 'R' (disenchanters) 'H' (giants/minotaurs, but giants are good for STR) 'c' (cockatrices/pyrolisks) and 'D' (dragons, but not if you need their resists).
Cursed scroll of genocide can be used to reverse genocide monsters. Popular target is nurses for nursedancing. You cannot summon a monster that cannot be genocided or has already been genocided this way.
If you are confused, an uncursed scroll genocides *your* role, and a cursed scroll sends in monsters of your role. Blessed scrolls work as normal.
Monsters that cannot be genocided: any A, &, Titan, Vlad the Impaler, werejackals and werewolves while in 'd' form, wererats in 'r' form, salamanders, any elemental, skeletons, all unique (proper name) monsters, all golems, and most '@' monsters; figure for '@' monsters that if it's something you want to get rid of, you can't.
Genociding pets does not carry any alignment or luck penalty; so if Frosty the Arch-Lich is making you nervous and playing with his athame when he thinks you aren't looking, don't be afraid to push the button.

genodeen.net

the bestest site ever, destroyed by Adeon
Finnished.

gentoo

An otherwise good compile-from-source distribution that, in its nethack package, fails to create the necessary /var/games/nethack/save directory. Someone really should file this as a bug.
To compile the non-graphical version of nethack, add "games-roguelike/nethack -X" to /etc/portage/package.use.

geryon

A resonably high level demon lord, who is only summoned, and is resistant to fire and poison only. He has claw/physical, and sting/strdraining attacks.
He's lawful, so stick around Asmodeus, Baalzebub, or Dispater to have a shot at meeting this strapping young lad.

geyser

the geyser spell is a level 13 clerical monster spell, it deals 8d6 damage but is halved if you have half physical damage.
monsters who can cast the geyser spell: high priest, master kaen, arch priest, grand master

ghost

Speed 3, AC -5, Magic resistance 50%, resists cold, sleep, disintegration and poison. Does 1 point of damage.

ghoul

Slow monster that has a paralyzing attack. You can create one by trying to engrave with something else than your fingers on a grave.

giant

Giant corpses, and tins of giant meat, can be eaten to increase your strength. If you're eating actual corpses, don't do it when Satiated -- you could choke and die.
If your current strength is less than 18, you gain either 1 str (75% chance) or d6 str (25% chance).
If your current strength is between 18 and 18/84, inclusive, it adds d10 str.
If your strength >= 18/85, it only adds 1 point.
Eaten: giant Nutr: 750 Effects: Strength

giant ant

The most common team member of Team Ant.
Edible, but not very nourishing.
Difficulty 4, bites for 1d4 damage, speed 18, AC 3.
Eaten: giant ant Nutr: 10

giant bat

Diff 3, Lvl 2. These aren't too hard, but with speed 22 are very fast.
Polymorphing into one causes an uncurable stunning, and eating the corpse of one makes you temporarily stunned.
Eaten: giant bat Nutr: 30 Effects: Stun (60)

giant beatle

A 20-foot-tall Paul McCartney (see {giant_beetle})..

giant beetle

Diff 6, Lvl 5. These relatively easy creatures are slow(6), but have a 3d6 attack. Hit them from range or with decent melee, though, and you'll finish them quickly. They nearly always leave corpses, which are poisonous.
Poisonous but may grant poison resistance ("You feel healthy.")
Eaten: giant beetle Nutr: 10 Effects: Poisonous Intrinsic: Poison: 33%

giant eel

These bastards may drown you in as quickly as two moves. When they "swing themselves around you", engrave Elbereth (obviously, not going to help you if you're crossing a body of water).
Or: kill it in one turn, teleport it, freeze the water, "oMB, put it to sleep.
Eaten: giant eel Nutr: 250

giant mimic

Eaten: giant mimic Nutr: 500 Effects: Mimic (50)

giant mummy

All your favorite qualities of a mummy, but doesn't show up on ESP or infravision! Get yours today!

giant rat

A giant rat. Go figure.
A rodent of unusual size.
Speed 10, AC 7, deals 1d3 damage.
Eaten: giant rat Nutr: 30

giant spider

Speed 15, AC 4, poison resistant and can grant it. Has a poisonous bite, which does damage in melee for 2d4 draining strength.
Poisonous to eat.
Eaten: giant spider Nutr: 100 Effects: Poisonous Intrinsic: Poison: 33%

giantslayer

One of many joke monster-specific artifact weapons that is just an obstacle in the way of a good weapon.
Neutral. Base item is a longsword. Does +1d5 to hit and double damage vs giants (including Lord Surtur and Cyclops).

gibbous

Swelling by a regular curve or surface; protuberant; convex; as, the moon is gibbous between the half-moon and the full moon.

gimp

A weak monster or weak player character that can't survive even an accute attack of team a.

glaive

A polearm. Costs 6 zorkmids, weighs 75, is made of iron, hits for d6 against small monsters and d10 against large ones, and is a two-handed weapon.
Unidentified appearance is {single-edged_polearm}. To a samurai it appears as a naginata.

glass

Items made out of glass are easy to break. For example, kicking a chest has a chance of breaking any item made out of glass in it, or force bolting a monster will break glass items it was carrying.
Most unidentified gems are actually worthless pieces of colored glass.
All unidentified 'gems' left by a glass golem are (surprise!) glass.

glass golem

All unidentified 'gems' left by a glass golem are (surprise!) glass.

glass orb

see {crystal_ball}

glass piercer

Eaten: glass piercer Nutr: 300

gleams with an oily sheen

You dipped a nonerodeable weapon into a potion of oil.

glhack

an opengl accelerated 2d tile interface for NetHack
[http://glhack.sourceforge.net]

glorkum

The name (in inventory)? of something of an unknown (to the game) class.
If you see a glorkum, there must have been a serious bug of some kind that caused it.

gloves

There are four types of gloves in the game: leather gloves (yugake), gauntlets of dexterity, gauntlets of fumbling, and gauntlets of power. Their unidentified descriptions are randomized per game: old gloves, padded gloves, riding gloves, fencing gloves.
To identify gloves, use these guidelines: Leather gloves are common, tend to be dropped by certain NPCs, and cost far less then the other types. Gauntlets of fumbling tend to be cursed, if they are not, wearing them should give a clue. Gauntlets of power auto-identify when worn. Which leaves gauntlets of dexterity as the last possibility - they will auto-identify if enchanted.
Leather gloves cost 8 zorkmids; the others cost 50 zorkmids.
Gauntlets of power are metal, and will therefore rust and increase spell failure probabilities; the others are non-metallic. For spellcasters, gauntlets of dexterity are the gloves of choice.
Gauntlets of power weigh 30; the others weigh 10.

gloves weight

gauntlets of power: 30. all others (leather, fumbling, dexterity): 10.

glow purple

You read a scroll of confuse monster while confused.

glow red

see {your hands begin to glow red}

glows purple for a moment

You've just got one of your worn items erodeproofed by reading cursed destroy armor being confused.

gnome

As a player, you may choose to be a gnome if you select Archeologist, Caveman, Healer, Ranger or Wizard. Gnomish characters always start out neutral. Gnomish rangers get crossbows and bolts instead of bows and arrows. Gnomes may have In:19, but only St:18/50.
Gnomish characters may also use an uncursed touchstone as if it were blessed.
Eaten: gnome Nutr: 100 Effects: Gnome

gnome king

Eaten: gnome king Nutr: 150 Effects: Gnome

gnome lord

Eaten: gnome lord Nutr: 120 Effects: Gnome

gnomish mines

This is the first separate branch in the Dungeons of Doom and visually very different from the dungeons, consisting of 8 or 9 levels, going downwards. The stairway is located between levels 2 and 4 of the DoD. See Minetown.
The bottom level of the gnomish mines has a guaranteed luckstone (usually behind a secret door or buried in a huge rock-filled area which must be excavated).
Loadstones will still appear at the bottom level of the Gnomish mines, so give gray stones the kick test before picking them up.
Traps abound, so inappropriately-difficult monsters might prompt you to step lightly for fear of polymorph traps. (Then again, it could just be a shape-shifter.)

gnomish wizard

A gnome who thinks they have magic powers and can cast spells, but in reality cannot.
Eaten: gnomish wizard Nutr: 120 Effects: Gnome

go team ant

The traditional cheer of #nethack when someone on NAO dies to a foo ant.

goblin

A weak monster, mostly harmless. Omnivorous. Can be fed on lichens.
Eaten: goblin Nutr: 100

god

see {gauntlets of dexterity}

gold detection

These scrolls detect the presence of gold on the current level. Use uncursed/blessed ones on the Planes while confused to find the portals to the next plane.
Use a cursed scroll on the planes of earth or air to detect the location of the portal (it will show up as $).
If there's no gold on the current level, you'll get "You feel worried about your future financial situation" if you're carrying gold, and "You feel materially poor" if you're not.

gold golem

Speed 9, AC 6, Does 2d3 + 2d3 melee damage
Is made out of gold! ...but not as much as you might think.

gold ring

An unidentified ring. *CAN* be eaten by rock moles and xorns.

gold vault

Unsurprisingly, they contain gold. You can find a teleport trap into this near the text "ad aerarium".
Also known as the "magic memory vault". One of these vaults may contain a magic portal leading to Fort Ludios, the home of Croesus (level 11-Medusa).
Special level sounds include someone counting money, footsteps of a guard on patrol, or, if the vault has been robbed, someone searching.
There are no doors in vaults, so if you can't teleport or dig your way out, you will have to wait for the guard to appear and escort you out. This way, you will have to drop all your gold, though.
If you can't find the 'ad aerarium' around the walls of some room, then you can either dig out every wall, search a lot, or dig everywhere a 4*4 space (2*2 vault and the walls) may be. (Object/gold detection may be helpful here.)
Unless he has been killed, telling the guard your name is 'Croesus', 'Kroisos', or 'Creosote' will make him go away. The guard will NOT let you out.
A source of easily obtainable human corpses.

golden era

Age of Adeon: Adeon has ascended 29 games in a row, between 20090405 and 20090515
"In the following decades remember to give a prayer to me at every morning" - Adeon

golden glow

"You are surrounded by a golden glow." One lost level (if any) is restored, max hp is increased by 5, strength and hp are restored to max, hunger is removed, base luck restored to 0 (if negative), and blindness is cured.
Like blessed potions of full healing, you can only restore up to half of the amount of experience levels you lost.

golden naga

Speed 14, AC 2, Magic resistance 70%, Poison resistant and can grant it. Does damage in melee for 2d6 and can cast spells for 4d6.
Eaten: golden naga Nutr: 400 Intrinsic: Poison: 67%

golden naga hatchling

Eaten: golden naga hatchling Nutr: 100 Intrinsic: Poison: 20%

golem

A straw, paper, rope, gold, leather, wood, flesh, clay, stone, glass or iron golem.
Lining up an Iron, Glass, Stone, Clay and Flesh golem in a row, and zapping /poly, does NOT make Golem Voltron

good pet

see {good_pets}

good pets

most A (Archon, Aleax, Ki-rin), dragons, winged gargoyle, minotaur, titan, mind flayer, jabberwock, lich, vampire lord, balrog
A bit more esoteric: cockatrice, air elemental, umber hulk, purple worm, iron/stone golem, various &

good things to polymorph into

arch-lich, winged gargoyle, xorn, dragons (for eggs and breath weapons), vampire lord, cockatrice

good wishes

SDSM, MRtifact or CoMR, speed boots, marker, marker, marker, marker, Magicbane, marker. In this order.
MRtifact = Eye, PYEC, Sceptre, Magicbane (but be careful).
And for crying out loud, USE YOUR MAGIC LAMP.

google

It's taking over. Watch out!
"Don't be evil."

gop

see {gauntlets_of_power}

grabbing

Some monsters, such as owlbears and rope golems, have a grabbing attack, which, if it hits, makes the monster 'stick' to you. Wear an oilskin cloak or grease your cloak if wearing one, body armor if not to prevent this grabbing.

graciously

Threw unnamed/unidentified glass to a crossaligned or coaligned unicorn, 0 luck change.

gradewrecker

Gradewrecker, aka NetHack. ;)

grand master

The Grand Master is the monk quest leader.
Grand Master is also the highest possible skill level for bare-handed combat and martial arts
+3 to bare-handed damage, +9 to martial arts damage.
It takes 500 hits and three experience levels to advance from master to grand master in either bare-handed combat or martial arts.
Eaten: Grand Master Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

granite ring

An unidentified ring. Cannot be eaten by any monster.

grappling hook

Weapon tool that acts as flail. You can grab items from the floor with it whilst levitating.

grave

Digging these up can produce a corpse, a zombie, or a mummy (or sometimes nothing).
Harms alignment for Lawfuls, and all Samurai and Archaeologists (the latter get hit the hardest)
On the plus side, sometimes free items!
Digging up always abuses Wisdom, even for Chaotics.
Graves created when bones are left and those in graveyards do not contain items.

grave robbing

Digging up a grave causes an alignment penalty if you're Archeologist, Samurai, or lawful. It also abuses your wisdom, in any case.

gravel flies up from the floor.

You have engraved with a wand of digging. The wand auto-identifies.

graverobbing

see {grave_robbing}

graveyard

Special room. Contains undead monsters, graves, and buried treasure.
Special level sounds include "You suddenly realize it is unnaturally quiet" and your hair on the back of your neck standing up.
Undead monsters are less likely to leave corpses on this level. Some players like to lead wraiths upstairs for this reason.
The graves in graveyards do not contain items, so there's no point in digging them up.
Note that the Castle and the top and bottom floors of the Wizard's Tower are marked as graveyards, even though they don't have graves.
Also, reading the cursed Book of the Dead or ringing the cursed Bell of Opening will mark the current level as a graveyard.
Frequency: 1/6, DL 12+.

gray-elf

see {grey-elf}

gray dragon

Breathes magic missiles dealing 4d6 damage. Bites for 3d8, then claws twice for 1d4 each. Base AC is -1, and MR is 20. Doesn't grant any intrinsics.
Eaten: gray dragon Nutr: 1500

gray dragon scale mail

Gray dragon scale mail drops AC by 9 and provides magic resistance while not hindering spell casting. Many AKs include this piece of armor.
Does NOT provide magic cancellation.
"Blessed greased +X gray dragon scale mail" is a great wish for many characters. The 'greased' part may save your life if you aren't wearing an oilskin cloak and are walking by water.
Weighs 40.

gray dragon scales

Drops AC by 3 and provides magic resistance. Does NOT provide magic cancellation. Can be transformed into gray dragon scale mail with a scroll of enchant armor.
Weighs 40.

gray ooze

Speed 1, AC 8, resists fire, cold, poison, acid and petrification, and can grant fire, cold and poison resistance. Bites for 2d8 in melee, rusting or corroding metal. The corpse is acidic and doesn't break vegetarian.
Eaten: gray ooze Nutr: 250 V Effects: Acidic Intrinsic: Fire: 7%, Cold: 7%, Poison: 7%

gray stone

One of luckstone, loadstone, touchstone or flint.
Try kicking it while it's on the ground; if it's loadstone, it won't move (Thump!). Then pick it up and try to apply it to a iron object; if it goes "scritch, scritch", it's a touchstone. Otherwise, it's either flint or luck.
If you are VERY strong and have kicking boots you may succeed in kicking a loadstone a small distance.
Samurai and Monks may be able to kick a loadstone without kicking boots.
If you kick a gray stone in a corner (i.e. against a wall), it will ALWAYS go "Thump!", so either dig away the wall behind it or teleport it somewhere else.
If you see a gray stone in a shop that costs 1, it's either a loadstone or a flint stone.
A luckstone cannot be *individually* named "Heart of Ahriman"; your hand will slip. That use of #name is a bug, so some players may say it is cheating.
Luckstones have a base price of 60 zm; touchstones, 45 zm; flint and loadstones have a base price of 1 zm.

gray stones

see {gray_stone}

gray unicorn

neutral aligned unicorn
Eaten: gray unicorn Nutr: 300 Intrinsic: Poison: 27%

grays

see {grayswandir}

grayswandir

Lawful, silver saber, does double damage against everything.
Corwin's sword in the Amber books by Roger Zelazny
Gives hallucination resistance.
It is NOT called "grays". You will be killed as an example to the others.

grease

Greased metal items are unlikely to rust, greased helms help prevent mind flayer attacks, and greased sacks are good for waterproofing against items inside. Just (a)pply grease to items to slather it on.
A greased robe, cloak, or wrapping prevents an eel's grabbing attack (can be worn off), and if you aren't wearing one of those, greased armor will do the same.
After it has protected an item, the grease may wear off. (1/3 chance)
Grease is not always effective when used on cursed armor, and may not help to stop grabbing attacks, prevent flayings, or stop erosion.
Grease can cause items to slip when thrown, and allows you to kick the item farther than it normally can go (1-3 squares)
Avoid greasing items while standing on the downstairs, because if the grease is cursed, it will get on your fingers and cause you to drop your weapon.
Even if a piece of armor is already rustproof, if you tangle with a rust monster the grease will dissolve. This applies to other corrosive attacks. So always check to make sure that the layer of grease is intact.
You can also use a noncursed can of grease to untrap a squeaky board.

green-elf

The weakest variety of wild elf. Normally peaceful to Chaotics. Level 5, 2d4 weapon. RESISTS SLEEP. IGNORES ELBERETH.
Eaten: Green-elf Nutr: 350 Effects: Elf Intrinsic: Sleep: 33%

green bitch

see {neferet_the_green}

green dragon

Green dragons breathe poison gas.
The corpse gives poison resistance
Eaten: green dragon Nutr: 1500 Effects: Poisonous Intrinsic: Poison: 100%

green dragon scale mail

Green dragon scale mail drops AC by 9 and provides poison resistance while not hindering spell casting.
Weighs 40.

green dragon scales

Drops AC by 3 and provides poison resistance. Can be transformed into green dragon scale mail with a scroll of enchant armor.
Weighs 40.

green mold

Non-moving fungus that doesn't have any attacks, but which does acidic damage if you hit it in melee, and can corrode weapons that hit it.
The corpse is acidic, provides little nutrition (30) and cannot give any intrinsics.
Eaten: green mold Nutr: 30 V! Effects: Acidic

green slime

Represented by a green P, its attack can turn you into slime (delayed instakill). Its corpse is acidic (can save from stoning) but will begin sliming you. You have ten turns to cure sliming. A unicorn horn will not cure sliming.
If you find yourself turning to slime, you can do one of the following to save yourself: burn the slime away (zap fire at self, read scroll of fire, fire trap, apply oil and throw <, etc), pray (if not in Gehennom), put on an amulet of unchanging, invoke the Staff of Aesculapius, cast cure sickness spell.
Polymorphing yourself into a Green Slime will also cure it, as will polymorphing into a fire-based monster such as a fire elemental.
Magic cancellation protects against sliming attacks.
Green slimes can also slime other monsters, and will slime a monster if eaten - which turns the monster into a slime. Beware for your pet purple worm, trapper, lurker above, or (master) mind flayer!
Green slimes respect Elbereth, if you find yourself hand-to-hand with one.
Eaten: green slime Nutr: 150 V Effects: Slime, Poisonous, Acidic
Attacking a green slime as [master] mind flayer will suck in some slime. This will start sliming, but will *not* update the status line, so be careful!

gremlin

Little green g that multiplies in water. Especially dangerous during night, as it has a high chance of stealing intrinsics when it hits (this is NOT blocked by magic cancellation). Their corpses are poisonous.
Level 5, difficulty 8, speed 12, AC 2, 25% magic resistance, deals 1d6 + 1d6 + 1d4 + steals intrinsic damage (if night). This is the only way to lose aggravate monster.
It is night from 22:00 to 05:59.
These little buggers are chaotic, and thus (if randomly generated) will be peaceful to chaotics with positive alignment.
Therefore, they won't try to steal your intrinsics. Yet another reason to play Chaotic. :)
Eaten: gremlin Nutr: 20 Effects: Poisonous Intrinsic: Poison: 33%
If an invisible gremlin splits, both new gremlins will be invisible. If a named gremlin splits, both new gremlins will share the name. If a shape changer temporarily assuming gremlin form splits, both new gremlins will be shape changers.
Gremlins can use their intrinsic stealing ability on other monsters, producing the messages "The gremlin chuckles" and "You hear laughter" (if the gremlin was out of your sight). HOWEVER, the gremlin cannot actually steal an intrinsic from another monster.
They can however destroy clay golems with that attack, producing the same messages. (If you are polymorphed into one, your clay golem form will be destroyed.)
Gremlins are hurt by light, for instance from breaking a wand of light or applying an expensive camera.

grenade

see {stoning_grenade}

grey-elf

Eaten: Grey-elf Nutr: 350 Effects: Elf Intrinsic: Sleep: 40%

grey dragon

see {gray_dragon}

grey dragon scale mail

see {gray_dragon_scale_mail}

grey dragon scales

see {gray_dragon_scales}

grey ooze

see {gray_ooze}

grey stone

see {gray stone}

grey stones

see {gray_stone}

greycat

Some old nethacker from back in the days when you could polypile for wands of polymorph, and elves were a separate class.
Even though nethack will print his name as 'graycat', it will take 'greycat' for wishes.

greyswandir

see {grayswandir}

grid bug

These little insects are not much of a threat, but can cause DYWYPI when you are careless, low on HP, or both.
"Wait! I shall polymorph into a grid bug to give thee a fighting chance!" The grid bug can only move and attack in the four cardinal directions (N, S, E, W) -- never diagonally.
These creatures originate from 'Tron'.
Gives you 1 experience point when defeated.
They usually appear in pairs.
Like all electric monsters, they can explode wands and rings. The chance is normally quite low but increases dramatically when there is a wand of wishing in your pack.

grid bugs

see {grid_bug}

gridbug

see {grid_bug}

gridbug price id

Price ID for scrolls, potions, wands, spellbooks and rings including markup for tourist/shirt/dunce cap: [http://nethack.gridbug.de]

grimtooth

A chaotic orcish dagger artifact. +d2 to hit, +d6 damage.

growls

Possible response by a canine pet when #chatted: indicates hungry and tameness of 5 or better.

grue

In the devnull tourney, if you accept the challenge from the Tournament Administrator in a dark room, then grue will infest the dark places. You will then need a light to survive dark places. Some players have reported encountering grue despite not accepting the challenge.

grunt

Castle Gremlin ttyrec (currently): [http://nethack.alt.org]
Gaulgath: Wow, Grunt, you are stinking up the joint!
He was never really good at the game anyway.
see also grunthack

grunthack

Play it online at grunthack.org.
Also swing by #grunthack for discussion and server commentary.
A variant of NetHack with much extended and enhanced behaviour. Public server: hardfought.org (ssh); IRC: #grunthack (here on freenode).

gta

see {go team ant}

gta camper

One who lurks until an ant death, and then says Go team ant!

guard

Eaten: guard Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

guardian naga

Speed 16, AC 0, Magic resistance 50%, Poison resistant and can grant it. Does 1d6 damage and paralyzes, spits poison for 1d6 and hits for 2d4 in melee.
Eaten: guardian naga Nutr: 400 Effects: Poisonous Intrinsic: Poison: 80%

guardian naga hatchling

Eaten: guardian naga hatchling Nutr: 100 Intrinsic: Poison: 20%

guide

Eaten: guide Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

guidebook

This is the User's Guide for NetHack. You'd better read it. It comes with every nethack distribution (or at least it should come!), and it's also online at [https://nethack.org]

guidelines

Don't use public away-messages, nor away-nicks. Use /away, that's why it's there.
The preferred language is English. Using some other language in the public channel is rude, so try to keep it at minimum.
See also the Freenode policy and guidelines: [http://freenode.net] and [http://freenode.net]

guisarme

A polearm with 2d4 damage versus small, d8 damage versus large. Its unidentified appearance is a pruning hook.
Weight 80, cost 5, material iron.

gulps some air

A monster just tried to use an engulfing attack on you, but failed because you are invisible.

gunyoki

Japanese food ration.
The samurai's last meal before battle. It was usually made up of cooked chestnuts, dried seaweed, and sake.
Also, [http://gunyoki.net] is clan EIT's "elite scoreboard" for the annual /dev/null/nethack tournament.

gurgling noise

There is a sink on the level.

h

Command: 'h' Without number_pad: Go one step in west. With number_pad: Show help menu.
Command: 'H' Without number_pad: Go in west until you hit a wall or run into something.
Monster: 'h' Short humanoids and mind flayers (because they are related, of course). Includes hobbits, dwarf (lord|king), bugbears, and (master) mind flayers. A good genocide choice, unless you are a dwarf.
Monster: 'H' Tall humanoids. Includes (stone|hill|fire|frost|storm) giants, ettins, titans, and minotaurs. A lot of them are worth eating if you are a weak character.

h4x0r

You mistook channels - it's not hacking channel. NetHack is name of game, created by ancient hackers, and as wannabe h4x0r you should know it. Consider halting your h4x0ring activity for a while and play NetHack instead. See: [https://nethack.org] and [https://nethackwiki.com] .

hachi

When playing as the samurai class, your default starting pet is a little dog named Hachi.
See [http://en.wikipedia.org]

hack

To bash/slash something, as in hack and slash. Hacking has nothing to do with computers.
The source code for nethack, however, could be considered a hack.
Also, NetHack's ancestor roguelike.

hacker

If you want to become a hacker, look at [http://www.catb.org]
If you want to become nethacker, look at [http://www.nethack.org]
If you want to become a cracker, /quit I suck.

hacking

#nethack is not about hacking the net. It is a game--see the join message.
See [http://alt.org]

hag of bolding

see {helm of brilliance}

halberd

A polearm. Unidentified appearance is an angled poleaxe. Costs 10 zorkmids, weighs 150, is made of iron, and deals d10 damage to small monsters and 2d6 damage to large monsters.
Is a two-handed weapon.

hallu

see {hallucination}

hallucinated colors

ultraviolet, infrared, bluish-orange, reddish-green, dark white, light black, sky blue-pink, salty, sweet, sour, bitter, striped, spiral, swirly, plaid, checkered, argyle, paisley, blotchy, guernsey-spotted, polka-dotted
square, round, triangular, cabernet, sangria, fuchsia, wisteria, lemon-lime, strawberry-banana, peppermint, romantic, incandescent

hallucinated monsters

Monsters you might see while hallucinating: jumbo shrimp, giant pigmy, killer penguin, giant cockroach, giant slug, maggot, pterodactyl, efreeti, marid, rot grub, bookworm, master lichen, shadow, hologram, jester, attorney, sleazoid, killer tomato, amazon, robot, battlemech,
rhinovirus, harpy, lion-dog, rat-ant, Y2K bug, grue, Christmas-tree monster, luck sucker, paskald, brogmoid, dornbeast, gnu, tyrannosaurus rex, basilisk, beholder, nightmare, Ancient Multi-Hued Dragon, Evil Iggy, emu, kestrel, xeroc, venus flytrap, creeping coins, hydra, siren, killer bunny, rodent of unusual size, Smokey the bear, Luggage, Ent
tangle tree, nickelpede, wiggle, white rabbit, snark, pushmi-pullyu, smurf, tribble, Klingon, Borg, Ewok, Totoro, ohmu, youma, nyaasu, Godzilla, King Kong, earthquake beast, Invid, Terminator, boomer, Dalek, microscopic space fleet, Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, teenage mutant ninja turtle, samurai rabbit, aardvark, Audrey II
witch doctor, one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater, Barney the Dinosaur, Morgoth, Vorlon, questing beast, Predator, mother-in-law

hallucination

Easy way to get lots of YAFMs.
While hallucinating, you will be immune to the touch of death monster spell, but not to Death's deadly touch.
You will neither be able to tell friends and foes apart nor be able to see what monsters are near you. Many players die to hallucination-distorted baddies or shopkeepers because they actually didn't know what they attack.
Cures involve applying the horn of a unicorn, wielding grayswandir, quaffing a potion of sickness or sitting it out. Also, potions of extra- or full-healing.
When hallucinating you may see insane monsters like "The Luggage" and "The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal". See also: hallucinated_monsters
Hallucination also changes a lot of text and messages, and it also ruins your chances of engraving properly.
Sitting it out is easier if you put on a blindfold or towel and use the count feature.
Protip: Use "m" followed by a direction key to move without attacking, if there are peacefuls around that you want to avoid angering.

hallucinatory monsters

see {hallucinated_monsters}

hand reaches up

"From the murky depths, a hand reaches up to bless the sword" You just got Excalibur.
"From the murky drain, a hand reaches up... --oops--" You just drank from a sink while hallucinating. No effects other than YAFM.

hands glow a brilliant red

You just read a blessed scroll of confuse monster

hard gems

All hard unidentified gems are valuable. Engrave with the gem to see if its hard (floor) or soft (dust).
Diamond (white), ruby (red), jacinth (orange), sapphire (blue), black opal (black), emerald (green), aquamarine (blue or green), and topaz (yellowish brown) are all the hard gems listed by decreasing value.

hard hat

see {dwarvish iron helm}

hard shoes

see {iron shoes}

hardfought

NetHack server, hosts several NetHack variants. [https://hardfought.org] :: IRC: #hardfought

hardware store

A shop. Sells and buys tools.

harp

Unidentified description of either a wooden harp or a magic harp.
Both have a base price of 50zm.
Magic harps produce very attractive music

haste self

You become very fast (like speed boots) for 100 to 109 (more) turns (160 to 169 (more) turns if skilled or expert) and exercise your dexterity. (steelypips.org/nethack)

hat of smart

see {helm_of_brilliance}

hawaiian shirt

Made of cloth, offers no AC drop if unenchanted, and will cause shopkeepers to exploit you if not hidden under armor! Yah! (Also the default starting armour for a tourist.)
Costs 2 zorkmids and weighs 5.
You don't need to bother fireproofing them, as the base AC is 0 to start with.

hd

"Hit Dice", referring to the 8-sided die used to determine monster hit points in AD&D. The hit dice was also used to determine monster "experience level" for comparison with player levels.
For example, a 6-HD monster would have 6 - 48 hit points, and would be considered level 6.

hea

see {healer}

hea skills

Basic: scimitar, saber, mace, polearms, spear, javelin, trident, bare handed combat. Skilled: dagger, short sword, club, sling, shuriken. Expert: knife, quarterstaff, dart, unicorn horn, healing spells.

head oscillates briefly

You just put on a helmet of opposite alignment.

head spins

You head spins as something blocks the spell. This is from trying to cast magic mapping on a level which is flagged as no map.

headless

The following creatures are headless (M1_NOHEAD) and therefore IMMUNE to the brainsuck (memory drain) attack of a flayer ('You seem unharmed'), as w
All b, e, j, m, t, v, y, F, P; elementals (all E but stalkers); Juiblex
Note that, for polyselfing, MOST headless monsters have no eyes (floating eyes are an obvious exception) and cannot see, so you'll want to have telepathy already.

healer

The Healer is a very difficult class to play, since the gentle arts of medicine are not conducive to survival in the Dungeons of Doom. Healers are neutral, and may achieve Expert skill in knives (but only Skilled in daggers), quarterstaves, darts and unicorn horns.
Healers start out with poison resistance and a spellbook of stone to flesh, so starving is not a problem once you get to Exp:3. They get intrinsic warning at Exp:15.
Stronger than a tourist in the early game, but their lack of #twoweapon skill makes them weaker in the mid and end game.
Healers will start out with 1001 to 2000 zorkmids, a scalpel, +1 leather gloves, 5 to 10 apples, wand of sleep, spellbooks of healing, extra healing and stone to flesh, a stethoscope, and a low (4%) chance of an oil lamp.
Healer rank titles: Rhizotomist (xplvl 1-2), Empiric (3-5), Embalmer (6-9), Dresser (10-13), Medicus ossium/Medica ossium (14-17), Herbalist (18-21), Magister/Magistra (22-25), Physician (26-29), Chirurgeon (30)
Intrinsic abilities: 1: Poison res; 15: Warning. Healers may become Expert in healing spells, but are restricted in all other spell schools.
Eaten: healer Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

healer artifact

The Staff of Aesculapius

healer staff

see {staff_of_aesculapius}

healerscum

Healerscum was a startscumming project. The idea was to get as early a wish as possible. So Eidolos wrote a script that continually creates healers, quaffs their healing potions, and quits if it didn't get a wish.
It worked. Healerscum is sitting with a blessed +3 SDSM on turn ten. If you ask Eidolos, he'll load it up for you. Game #234 is the one that finally made it. A related success did the same for Monks and the Eye of the Aethiopica (which has blast damage)

healing

see {Healing_Spells}

healing spells

In this group (with their levels) are: healing (1), cure blindness (2), cure sickness (3), extra healing (3), stone to flesh (3), restore ability (4)
Expert: Healer, Monk, Priest. Skilled: Knight, Wizard. Basic: Archaeologist, Ranger.

health food store

A type of shop. Sells 70% vegetarian food, 20% fruit juice, 4% healing, 3% full healing, 2% scrolls of food detection, 1% royal jelly.
Introduced in 3.6.

healthy life-style

Just gained a point of Con.
see {You_must_be_leading_a_healthy_life-style}

healthy lifestyle

see {You_must_be_leading_a_healthy_life-style}

hear a door open

A monster with hands has opened a door on this level. On lower level it is probably an 'o' variant.
It could also be a were-foo creature.

hearse

A utility to allow NetHack users to share bones files. See [http://hearse.krollmark.com]

heart of ahriman

The barbarian quest artifact, a neutral luckstone. It confers stealth while carried, and can be #invoked to toggle levitation.
It also causes 2x damage when slung at monsters. Big whoop.
At the very least, make sure it's kept blessed for the luck bonuses it'll give.

heaven

"Thou art early, but we'll admit thee."
All levels less then or equal to -10 are considered to be "heaven"
Don't levelport to those levels unless you want to lose the game.

hell

See Gehennom (both literally and figuratively(all those nasty mazes))

hell hound

Firey d often found in hell. Bites for 3d6 and breathes fire for 3d6.
Eaten: hell hound Nutr: 300 Intrinsic: Fire: 80%

hell hound pup

Firey d often found in hell. Bites for 2d6 and breathes fire for 2d6.
Eaten: hell hound pup Nutr: 200 Intrinsic: Fire: 47%

hello world

Haven't you got anything better to be doing with your time?

helm

There are several objects in the game with the name helm: elven leather helm, orcish helm, dwarvish iron helm, helm of brilliance, helm of opposite alignment, and the helm of telepathy.

helm of brilliance

Unidentified appearance is either the crested, etched, plumed or visored helmet. Adds its enchantment to your intelligence and wisdom when worn.
Does not hinder spellcasting, even though it is made of metal.
Does not help prevent death from brainlessness, for example with a +5 helm of brilliance you will die of brainlessness if your intelligence falls below 8.
As a fortune cookie may tell you, not to be taken lightly.

helm of opposite alignment

Unidentified appearence is either the crested, etched, plumed or visored helmet. When worn, will auto-curse, remove protection and change your alignment. (Your alignment will change back when the helm is removed.)

helm of telepathy

Unidentified appearence is either the crested, etched, plumed or visored helmet. Gives ESP when worn.

helm weight

elven leather helm: 3. orcish helm: 30. dwarvish iron helm: 40. fedora: 3. cornuthaum: 4. dunce cap: 4. dented pot: 10. helmet: 30. helm of brilliance: 50. helm of opposite alignment: 50. helm of telepathy: 50.

helmet

The helmet slot can be filled by the fedora, dunce cap (conical hat) and cornuthaum (conical hat) for zero drop in AC if unenchanted. A dented pot, elven leather helm (leather helm), helmet/kabuto, orcish helm (iron skull cap), helm of brilliance, helm of opposite alignment, and helm of telepathy will drop AC by one when unenchanted. A dwarvish iron helm (hard hat) will drop AC by 2 when unenchanted.
The normal helmet, helm of brilliance, helm of opposite alignment, and helm of telepathy share the randomized appearance of plumed, etched, crested, and visored helmets.
The normal helmet drops AC by one and is made of iron - it will rust, and it will hinder spellcasting. It is also known as the kabuto.
The normal helmet costs 10 zorkmids and the other three randomized helmets cost 50. The helm of opposite alignment will self-identify and the helm of telepathy will hinder spellcasting while the helm of brilliance will not.
Beware, however, that wearing a helm of opposite alignment will cause you to lose any divine protection you have accumulated. Oh, and it autocurses itself, too.

help

Configuration option. If more information is available for an object looked at with the '/' command, ask if you want to see it.
Rodney command help: [http://alt.org] ; for a short list see ?? bot_commands.
These include ways to get high scores, the last time someone played, and even more.

helpless

see {while_helpless}

hemmed in

"You feel hemmed in!" A creature you can't see has just summoned help.

hentai conduct

Ascend naked wielding a blessed greased carrot and with a pet kraken. Bonus points if the kraken is leashed. Optionally, wear only a pair of high boots.

heptagram

The AceHack equivalent of Elbereth (Elbereth is removed in Ace, but heptagrams do exactly the same thing). You can dust a heptagram easily by pressing ".".

hermes

The neutral god of Healers.

heterological

See Heterological.

hezrou

You can beat it.
Common demon; looks somewhat like a malformed toad with arms in place of forelegs, but not as tall as a vrock. According to AD&D, hezrou can cause fear, levitate, detect invisible objects, and gate in other hezrou.

high-pitched humming

see {whistle}

high boots

Leather boots that drop AC by 2 and have the unidentified appearance of 'jackboots'.

high priest

These are the priests that monitor the endgame altars, they do W4d10 2d8 M2d8+ M2d8+ damage, where W is their weapon and + is a spell, and they move with speed of 25, which is the equivalent of "very fast". Do not piss these guys off.
Eaten: high priest Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

high whistling sound

Tin whistle, uncursed.

hiking boots

Either the unidentified elven, kicking, fumble, levitation, jumping, speed or water walking boots.

hilite pet

Configuration option. Visually distinguish pets from similar animals.

hill giant

Eaten: hill giant Nutr: 700 Effects: Strength

hill orc

There's nothing special about these guys, they're weak and edible
They like to attack in groups.
Eaten: hill orc Nutr: 200

hilted polearm

see {ranseur}

hippocrates

The healer quest leader.
Eaten: Hippocrates Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

hissing gas

Someone just melted ice with a source of fire.

historic statue

-1 alignment for breaking these as an archeologist.
Medusa's statue of Perseus, the gnome king statue in the "Grotto Town" variant of Minetown, and the Oracle's centaur statues are all historic.
-1 alignment for casting stone-to-flesh on the statue as archaeologist.
stoning a unique monster (e.g. Medusa) turns it into a historic statue.

hit points

see {hp}

hoa

see {heart_of_ahriman}

hob

see {helm of brilliance}

hobbit

a humanoid monster, speed 9, AC 10, 1d6 melee damage, can use weapons, will use projectiles. Sometimes wears an elven mithril-coat. Usually peaceful for lawful characters.
Eaten: hobbit Nutr: 200

hobgoblin

Difficulty 3, speed 9, does 1d4 damage.
Will be placed in throne rooms.
Eaten: hobgoblin Nutr: 200

hobug

Using a cursed scroll of destroy armor on a cursed helm of brilliance or a cursed pair of gauntlets of dexterity reduces the enchantment of the piece of armor without altering the stats; after removing the piece of armor, stats are permanently increased.

holy

Item prefix meaning the same as blessed. You can wish for an object to be holy to produce the same effect as asking for it to be blessed.

holy war

Please refrain from it. Thank you.

holy water

Blessed water. #dip items in holy water to bless them, or uncurse them if cursed. Holy water is created by placing water on a coaligned altar and praying (when possible to successfully pray). #dip'd stacks of items only require one holy water to bless the whole stack, so you can create more potions of holy water by dipping a stack ordinary potions of water in one..
Quaffing a potion of holy water will cure lycanthropy, but be careful, it will also do 2d6 damage and abuse constitution if chaotic.
Confused blessed remove curse has a 25% chance to curse, and a 25% chance to bless, uncursed objects in your inventory, including uncursed water.
To make holy or unholy water, 1) Name a stack of water and drop it. 2) Pick up one (using 'n1,'), rename, and repeat until you have about 8 or so. 3) Drop all other uncursed items ('D -> U'). 4) Confuse yourself and read a blessed ?RC.
If you are confronted by a lycanthrope in the early game, thrown or wielded holy water can kill them quickly. Especially useful as a cornered priest.
[http://i.imgur.com]

homework

Ever try mixing acid and water?

homunculus

Attempted pluralization is futile. The homunculus corpse is poisonous, but the animal itself isn't terribly difficult to kill even for early adventurers.
It's "Homunculi", they are minor demons and have a bite that can put you to sleep.
Has a very small chance of giving poison resistance and a very small chance of giving sleep resistance.
It is ITSELF poisonous though so it's a pretty awful way to pick it up unless you have extrinsic poison resistance.
Eaten: homunculus Nutr: 100 Effects: Poisonous Intrinsic: Sleep: 7%, Poison: 7%

hooa

see {Helm of Opposite Alignment}

hooded cloak

see {dwarvish cloak}

hooked polearm

see {bill-guisarme}

hopeful feeling

See also {feeling of reconciliation}.
Your sacrifice reduced the prayer timeout but not to zero; it is not necessarily safe to pray yet.

horn

Either a tooled horn (base cost 15 zorkmids), or a frost horn, fire horn, or horn of plenty (all 50 zorkmids). All but the horn of plenty can be used for the Castle drawbridge.

horn of fire

see {fire horn}

horn of plenty

Created with 1 to 20 charges. May contain maximum 50 charges. Produces food or a potion of water, fruit juice, booze, acid, sickness or oil. Item blessing depends on the blessed/uncursed/cursed status of the horn.
CANNOT be used to play the castle passtune.

horned devil

Speed 9, AC -5, magic resistance 50%, fire and poison resistant, does melee damage with weapon for 1d4, claws for 1d4, bites for 2d3 and stings for 1d3.
Lawful demon, making random generation impossible in Gehennom, so these are never randomly generated. May be summoned by other lawful demons, and are also found in the sanctum, Baalzebub's lair, and Asmodeus' lair.

horse

Level 5, difficulty 7, speed 20, AC 5. Not quite as good (as a pet) or bad (as an enemy) as a warhorse.
Eaten: horse Nutr: 300

horsename

Configuration option. Name your starting horse (ex. "horsename:Trigger"). Cannot be set in-game.

hot air

see {you_feel_full_of_hot_air}

hot nethack guys

These people don't exist, although mucknert can do a reasonable parody if pushed
Although the variants guys are said to be really hot.

housecat

Speed 16, AC 5, bites for 1d6 damage. Eating its corpse gives you aggravate monster intrinsic, unless you're exempt from cannibalism.
Eaten: housecat Nutr: 200 Effects: Aggravate

how darest thou desecrate my altar

You attempted to engrave on an altar. -1 Wisdom if coaligned, -1 luck if not.

how not to die

Never quaff from a sink or fountain
Never use crap which you haven't made sure isn't cursed
Never attack shop keepers

how to annoy people in one easy step

Like the time I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, as was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel and in those days nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them; "Give me five bees for a quarter!" you'd say.
Just behave like KimmoKM. This is the easiest way to annoy people.
Now, where were we? Oh, yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my belt, as was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions, because of the war, all you could get was those big yellow ones...
It's even better if the definitions with the ?> command is large, like this one. Of course, this message certainly isn't to be used for such purposes, and was made longer for other reasons, like.... uh.... um..... well.... you see.... Oh, forget it.
But the yellow ones stank so much, we had to put those clothespins over our noses when we went into town. 'course, that didn't help the eyes, but you were crying anyways because of all these people with clothespins on their noses. But I was laughing so hard I went right by the shoestore, which in the old days was called a footstore. We often called it Footsore because the boots were so awful.
Come in here and don't read the friggin' topic.

how to ascend

Start as a dwarf valkyrie, enter the mines, get a mithril-coat, get to minetown and wish for sdsm if you can, get candles, go back to the main dungeon and go to the Oracle, make Excalibur when you're level 7, do sokoban, go to the castle,
get the wand of wishing and wish for charging, silver dragon scale mail, Sceptre of Might if you can and want to artiwish, otherwise cloak of magic resistance, speed boots, ring of levitation, and markers, enchant your armor and weapon, get gloves from the barracks, go back and do the quest, exit the quest and levelport to the valley of the dead, map gehennom,
do gehennom, kill Vlad and get the candelabrum, find the vibrating square, kill Rodney and get the book of the dead, do the invocation, activate conflict if you have the sceptre or the appropriate ring, go down, get the Amulet of Yendor, go back up, do the planes, on Astral go to the non-Death altars, and if you get the chaotic one wish for a helm of opposite alignment, ascend.
It's easy!

how to ascend exploremode edition

Play in explore mode.

how to confuse yourself

see {how to get confused}

how to get girls

Reverse genocide nurses

how to play like ais523

Ignore all potions that you haven't seen a monster ID, initially all scrolls (wish-ID charging and enchant weapon/armor), don't bother with a bag of holding (use a sack), don't bother with reflection unless you find it early, if you can get the OoF do so regardless of character, use conflict for Astral, use clairvoyance for Gehennom
ais523 does not claim that this is a /good/ strategy, but nonetheless uses it

how to speedrun

see {how_to_ascend}

how to win

see {how_to_ascend}

howling

A werecreature is around.

hp

Hit Points. If these go to zero, you're dead.
Unless you're polymorphed into a monster, and don't have unchanging, in which case you'll regain your original form.
for starting hp and hp gain per level, see [http://www.steelypips.org]

hpmon

Hitpoints color monitor patch for 3.4.3 is up at [http://www.iki.fi]
It will change the color of your hitpoints depending on how many are remaining. Superseded (on NAO) by the introduction of the statuscolors patch.

hpom

High Priest of Moloch

hsn

Command !hsn for Rodney, which displays high score a player. Stands for "high score...noodle".

hsp priceid

Current version at [http://hispeed.no-ip.biz]
Javascript only (thus offline) version of a nethack helper.. including price id, help for alchemy and spellbook learning probabilites.
More accurate than clippy when it comes to identification using the shopkeeper's price, especially for Tourists.
For bug reports (including used browser, OS, version, error message and line number) as well as _constructive_ criticism please message HiSPeed.

hsrt

"Holy Shit Real Thing!", also known as the -real- Amulet of Yendor.

huge chunk of meat

Weight 400, nutrition 2000. What happens when you stone-flesh a boulder.

huhetotl

The chaotic god of the Archeologist pantheon.

human

You're probably one, you know.
Basic player race in NetHack; completely unremarkable in this respect. Appear as @, and many monsters are human.
The plain "human" is not generated randomly, but you can get one with a wand of undead turning and a human corpse.
Keystone Kops also count as human, so don't eat them if you're human.
Eaten: human Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

hunger

see {nutrition}

hungerless casting

The following applies only to Wizards. An intelligence of 17 or better will grant hungerless casting. An intelligence of 16 quarters hunger cost. An intelligence of 15 halves hunger cost. Any lower and you receive no reduction.

hungerless spellcasting

see {hungerless_casting}

hungry

see {nutrition}

hunt the wumpus

An older Unix text-based game, in which you try to kill a wumpus while avoiding pits and bats. The ranger quest has a tip-of-the-hat to hunt the wumpus.
see {wumpus}

hunter

Eaten: hunter Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

hurr

The sound of an orc failing an intelligence/wisdom roll. Often stated when something obvious is missed.
The sound of one grunt splatting.

hw

see {holy water}

i

Command: 'i' List your inventory (everything you're carrying).
Command: 'I' List selected parts of your inventory. I* lists all gems, Iu lists all unpaid items, Ix is all used-up items on your shopping bill and I$ counts your money.
Monster: 'i' Manes, imps, lemures, quasits, tengus, and the hard-to-pluralize homunculus.
Monster: 'I' A monster that you felt but did not see. May or may not still be there anymore.
Command: 'Meta-i' Same as '#invoke'.
It's 'homunculi.'

i3rian

<I3rian> I tend to be the best video gamer I know. I believe it's only a matter of time
I3rian is the foschizzle!
Believe everything you read?

i bestow upon thee a blessing

The blessing is 500-1000 turns of clairvoyance.

ian-keith

...IS NOT A ROBOT
...at least that's what he'd like us to think.

iankeith

Don't ask.

ibmgraphics

Configuration option. Use IBM extended characters. Won't work for all terminals.
If you use XTerm/RXVT/aterm/Eterm/etc. to play NetHack through NAO, and can't seem to get IBMgraphics to display correctly, check out [http://tweek.no-ip.org] for a 13-pt fixed-width Lucida font that (supposedly) works with DEC/IBM/whatever, and looks cool.
To prepare - decompress the file ($ bunzip2 lutRS13-ascii.bdf.bz2), then use bdftopcf to compile the font ($ bdftopcf lutRS13-ascii.bdf > lutRS13-ascii.pcf), then gzip the resulting file ($ gzip lutRS13-ascii.pcf).
To install - copy the gzipped, compiled PCF file into any font path specified in your XF86Config or xorg.conf file. I use /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/. Then cd to that path and use mkfontdir (# mkfontdir) to regenerate the path's fonts.dir listing, then use xset ($ xset fp rehash) to have X look for new fonts. (You could also restart X, but, meh.)
To use - tell your favorite terminal emulator to use the font -b&h-lucidatypewriter-medium-r-normal-sans-13-125-75-75-m-80-ascii-0 (on many systems -*-lucidatypewriter-medium-*-*-*-13-*-*-*-*-*-ascii-0 will be enough). Most of these accept a command-line argument of -fn; for something more permanent, add an entry to .Xresources like Aterm*font: -*-lucida...
Report any bugs, occurences of artifacts (annoying pixels that remain after redraws) or general ideas (I plan, for example, to round the corners off eventually) to tweek.20k@gmail.com
If you use Windows, use PuTTY as a telnet client (google for it). Type in 'nethack.alt.org' under 'Host Name (or IP address)' and check 'Telnet', then hit 'Open' to connect. To have PuTTY translate IBMgraphics characters correctly, tell it to use code page 437 (on the left side, under Window -> Translation, change 'Use font encoding' to 'CP437'). You can save these settings by going back to 'Session', clicking 'Default Settings' and hi
In Konsole it's Settings -> Encoding -> Western European ( ibm850 ) -- make sure you also "Save as Default"

ice box

Heavy container (weighs 900 units or 90 daggers) that stops corpses from rotting. Usually generated with heavy corpses.
If you find one with a corpse inside, be sure to check the corpse for useful intrinsics.
Very handy to have next to an altar. Store up the kills so you can sacrifice what you want when you want.
Ice boxes can be engulfed by gelatinous cubes, but the contents are unharmed. This makes them extremely useful for stashes, as monsters don't loot containers.

ice devil

Level 11, speed 6, AC -4. Both fire *and* cold resistant.

ice troll

Eaten: ice troll Nutr: 300 Intrinsic: Cold: 60%

ice vortex

Level 6 AC 2 engulfs and does 1d6 cold damage.

icebox

see {ice box}

icky

Interactive Chat Kollaboration of Yendor.

id10t

see {PEBKAC}

id spoiler

guide to identify objects [http://www.steelypips.org] (SPOILER!)
Newer version (with confusing prices table though) on [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk]

ideas

Ideas is now closed.
In the meantime, ideas can go directly to RGRN: [http://tinyurl.com]

idefix

Default barbarian dogname.

identification spoiler

see {ID_spoiler}

identify

You can identify items by reading a scroll of identify (best blessed), casting identify -spell, or #sitting on a throne. (small chance)
Scrolls of identify are easy to price-ID in shops, as they are the cheapest scroll.
Blessed scroll has a 1/5 chance of IDing 1, 2, 3, 4, or all items. Positive luck guarantees at least 2. Uncursed has a 21/25 chance of IDing one item, and a 1/25 chance of each 2, 3, 4, and all items. Cursed only IDs one item.
You can also ID by price. See ??Clippy and tabs-343.txt.
An identify scroll that identifies all items will not identify items in a container.

idhelper

See nethack_helper

ignintr

Configuration option. Ignore interrupt signals, including breaks.

ignoring you

see {#invoke}

iguana

A small member of the lizard family.
Slightly nastier than a newt. No special attacks, corpse does nothing other than feed you, quite boring really.
Eaten: iguana Nutr: 30

ih

see {interhack}

iirc

if i recall correctly

ikarus

Don't take his advice on shkps please.

iliterate

see {illiterate}

ill

The first hit that makes you Ill will give you 20 turns to live, plus a random number between 0 and your CON.
All subsequent hits will reduce that time to 1/3 of its current value, plus one turn.
The practical upshot of all this is that the worst possible progression is 20 -> 8 -> 4... and so on, so you need to kill whatever's making you sick before it hits you a 3rd time.

illegal move

If you are a knight, and attempt to jump to a location you cannot, it will say, "Illegal move!" Probably a pun on chess.

illiterate

This conduct requires you to not read or write any spellbooks and scrolls, eat or read any fortune cookies while not blind, read any T-shirts, or engrave anything besides a SINGLE x or X. Engraving "xxxx" will break the conduct, for example.
Naming or calling items and reading gravestones and engravings will not break illiterate (that would be a bit harsh). Reading the Book of the Dead for the invocation does not break the conduct either.
Scrolls of mail don't break the illiterate conduct, although they used to in 3.4.3 (bug C343-320).

illithid

see {mind flayer}

illustrated nethack

Images of many NetHack monsters: [http://koti.mbnet.fi]

imp

Small demon that can regenerate itself. It neither has, nor confers any resistances.
It claws for 1d4 damage and will randomly taunt you.
AC: 2, MR: 20%, base experience: 32.
Eaten: imp Nutr: 10

impatient

Another word for "Dead".

imperious order

What kills you when you genocide yourself on a throne. So, don't. Since it's uncursed, the only likely way to screw this up accidentally is to genocide master liches or master mind flayers while a monk and slip up. It sees master, sees that monks have the title 'Master' at some point then genocides you.

inattentive

Another word for "Dead".

increase damage

A way you can determine your intrinsic damage bonus is to use a means of probing a monster's health, hitting that monster with a non-weapon item (like a comestible) and subtracting 1 + your strength damage bonus from the total damage. The strength damage bonus is 3-5 = -1; 6-15 = 0; 16-17 = 1; 18 = 2; 18/01-18/75 = 3; 18/76-18/90 = 4; 18/91-18/99 = 5; 18/100 or higher = 6.

incubi

plural of incubus

incubus

see {foocubus}

indiscretion

see {Thou shalt pay for thy indiscretion}

infravision

Infravision is the ability to see heat sources through darkness.
Every starting race except human has this, plus a countless list of monsters.

ink

scroll charges: mail:2, amnesia:8, earth:8, fire:8, food detection:8, gold detection:8, light:8, magic mapping:8, create monster:10, destroy armor:10, punishment:10, confuse monster:12, identify:14, charging:16, enchant armor:16, enchant weapon:16, remove curse:16, scare monster:20, stinking cloud:20, taming:20, teleportation:20, genocide:30

insect farming

see {ant_farming}

instadeath

see {instakill}

instakill

Instantaneous death. Very frustrating.
Examples: killer bee attack while not poison resistant, zapped wand of death while not magic resistant, footrice touching.

instructional ttyrec

some compiled here, by Jove. [http://www.mindspring.com]

int

see {intelligence}

intelligence

Intelligence (In:) influences frequency of power regeneration (wisdom influences the amount instead), ability to successfully read spellbooks, cast spells, and use crystal balls. Also influences the amount of hunger induced as a result of casting, but only for Wizards.
Racial limits: Elf=20, gnome=19, human=18, orc & dwarf = 16. Helm of brilliance adds its enchantment to intelligence (and wisdom), and can override racial limit.
Along with Charisma, intelligence cannot be exercised, but instead can only be increased with blessed potions of enlightenment, potions of gain ability or helm of brilliance, or by eating a [master] mind flayer corpse (50% chance).
Wisdom rather than Intelligence governs spellcasting success for Healers, Knights, Monks, Priests, and Valkyries.

interesting

"Interesting..." - means nothing interesting happened; gotta love NetHack's sense of humor. You probably dipped a blessed item into holy water, a cursed item into unholy water, a unihorn into a potion that doesn't clear (and isn't polymorph), etc.

interhack

[http://taeb.github.io] (#interhack on freenode) - the NetHack enhancement layer, runs on NAO, devnull, SporkHack, and any other game server!!
Features: arbitrarily color messages/items, statuscolors, view maps of any levels you've visited, built-in price ID, automatic termcast, and more
It is no longer in development and is somewhat difficult to get running sometimes, but if you want have fun with it.

intrinsic

see {property}

intrinsics

Possible intrinsics are: aggravate monster, cold resistance, disintegration resistance, fire resistance, invisibility, lycanthropy, polymorph control, poison resistance, protection, searching, see invisible, shock resistance, speed, stealth, telepathy, teleport control, teleportitis, and warning.
For information on what corpses convey what intrinsics, and the chances of such, see: [http://www.geocities.com]

invisibility

see {invisible}

invisible

While the player is invisible, monsters suffer a -2 to hit penalty and may attack empty spaces
A unicorn will not teleport away from an invisible player. Thus a coaligned unicorn may be approached and offered a gem.
Eating a stalker corpse while invisible will grant you see invisible intrinsically and make you permanently invisible.
An invisible player will be prevented from entering shops by the shopkeeper ("Invisible customers are not welcome!"). This can be circumvented by wearing a mummy wrapping, which will render you visible while you are wearing it. You may also #jump to a tile within the shop.
Do not expect a knight's intrinsic #jump to leap over the shopkeeper blocking the doorway, however. You have to leap at a 45-degree angle diagonally from the doorway.

invisible black light

see {black_light}

invisible stalker

see {stalker}

invocation

To get to Moloch's Sanctum, you have to perform this. You'll need The Candelabrum of Invocation (plus 7 candles), The Bell of Opening and The Book of Dead.
The normal procedure is to get the Bell of Opening and Candelabrum, find the vibrating square, make sure you are ready to ascend, whack the wizard, then perform the invocation.
The exact procedure is to stand on the vibrating square, light the Candelabrum (7 candles must be attached), ring the Bell (these first two may be done in any order), and read the Book. Sascha Wostmann's guide to remembering is: 1) Make some light to read by. 2) Ring the bell to get the attention of the audience. 3) Read the book to them.
All of the items must be non-cursed; the Bell must have charges.

invoke

see {#invoke}

invulnerability

The state of successful prayer, this is supposed to make you completely invulnerable; monsters will not attack you and timeouts are paused.
A few things are still able to hurt/kill you, though this is a bug; among them are stinking clouds, psychic blasts, gas spore explosions and monster-triggered traps.

ipbt

A "high-tech ttyrec player"; ipbt allows you to rewind, and go directly to specific frames, and so on.
Only downside is ipbt requires a lot of preprocessing time for a ttyrec, so it's handy to keep an ordinary ttyrec player (like jilles' playttyrec) around as well.
Download it at [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk] (it's written by the same guy who made PuTTY!)

ircrobin

A robin account created on nethack.alt.org for #nethack on freenode, but of course, usable by others

iron ball

see {punishment}

iron bars

You can fire through them but can't walk through them.

iron chain

Almost the most useless item in the game (You can feed them to metallivores). They can't be polypiled into a more useful item. They are dropped by iron golems and can be created by punishment (via scroll or angry god).
Is sometimes used to mark the location of the "vibrating square".
Base price 0zm, weight 120

iron golem

One of the harder Golems. This one can breathe poison, much like a dragon's breath attack.
AC: 3 MR:60%. Hits for 4d10. Breathe damages dexterity.
Healed by wands/spells of lightning or fire. Susceptible to rust traps/monsters.

iron hook

see {grappling hook}

iron piercer

Speed 1, attack 3d6. Rarely a threat.
Eaten: iron piercer Nutr: 300

iron ring

An unidentified ring. *CAN* be eaten by rock moles, rust monsters, and xorns.

iron shoes

Iron boots that drop AC by 2 and have the unidentified appearance of 'hard shoes'. A common armor for many players in the early game.
Just like all other metal stuff, inhibits casting.

iron skull cap

see {orcish helm}

ishtar

The neutral goddess of the Caveman class.

issek

The lawful god of the rogue's pantheon.

it's dead jim

You just applied a stethoscope to a corpse, while hallucinating.

it develops a huge set of teeth and bites you!

You tried to loot a bag of tricks. Identify it next time.
Consider yourself lucky. You just narrowly escaped becoming trapped within the bag with the other monsters. It opens only from the outside.

it explodes!

An undetected exploding monster exploded; most likely an (intrinsically invisible) black light, but possibly a yellow light or <foo> sphere; never a gas spore as those have a different message.
Common part of YAFMs, to such extent that some people don't even consider it funny anymore.

it feels rather humid down here

You have entered a swamp room while blind.

it is about time

The RNG's favorite way of saying "screw you."
A genie was released! But he had somewhere to go, see you later! Or not.

it looks rather muddy down here.

You have entered a swamp level.

itsblah

There is a cool player in your channel
Known to be inhospitibly bored on occasion.
There is no apostrophe. Remember that, for it may be important in the future.
remember, kids: itsblah sez "l33t i5 l4m3!!!eleventy!#"
Never ever sleeps. Ever. You will never catch him asleep.

ivory ring

An unidentified ring. Cannot be eaten by any monster.

ixoth

The Knight quest nemesis, a dragon.
He casts spells and can curse your inventory. Luckily, he can be cancelled.
Eaten: Ixoth Nutr: 1600 Intrinsic: Fire: 100%

izchak

The lighting shop owner in Minetown, always generated. He is generally left alive, even during minetown clearings, out of respect for the late professor Izchak Miller (one of the founding DevTeam members, and responsible for much of the shopkeeper logic), for whom he is named. There is no technical reason, but killing him is considered very bad form among some NetHack players.
Also a bot on IRCNet #NetHack, announcing deaths on fishpool public nethack server.
One of the reasons we love him is because he sells us magic lamps.
Izchak will happily sell you at least one magic lamp in roughly 20.6% of games.
Chatting to him in minetown might give advice just like Oracle, but for free.

j

Command: 'j' Either moves down or, if you have rejected the one-true-path-of-vi-movement-keys, will jump (same as #jump or Meta-j).
Command: 'J' Move down until you hit a wall or something (vi keys on).
Monster: 'j' Jellies. Blue, spotted, and ochre.
Monster: 'J' Jabberwocks. Only jabberwocks. Because jabberwocks are special.
Command: 'Meta-j' Same as '#jump'.

jabberwock

Speed 12, AC -2, magic resistance 50%, flies, does melee damage for 2d10 + 2d10 + 2d10 + 2d10.
Vorpy takes care of them with ease.
Context: [http://www.jabberwocky.com]
Eaten: jabberwock Nutr: 600

jacinth

A rare hard orange gem worth 3250 zorkmids.
In the main dungeon, jacinths usually won't be seen above dungeon level 19.

jackal

A weak creature that rarely presents a threat. Can be found on the upper dungeon levels. Does 1d2 damage.
Its corpse is nonpoisonous, provides 250 turns worth of nutrition and does not grant any intrinsics.
Eaten: jackal Nutr: 250

jackboots

see {high boots}

jade

A soft green gem worth 300 zorkmids.

jade ring

An unidentified ring. Cannot be eaten by any monster.

jafet

Creator of the "confirm hitting floating eyes" patch.
Arguably the greatest troll of all time.

jaguar

Speed 15, AC 6, claws 1d4 + 1d4 and bites for 1d8.
Eaten: jaguar Nutr: 300

jasper

A soft red gem worth 500 zorkmids.

javelin

Thrown spear which does 1d6 dmg vs small and large. Cost 3 Weight 20

jello mold

An advanced pudding farming technique, where the player leaves as many holes in sokoban as possible, then pudding farms on an upper level, and lets the puddings fall through the holes to fill multiple levels.

jellyfish

Eaten: jellyfish Nutr: 20 Effects: Poisonous Intrinsic: Poison: 20%

jerkwhistle

Top contender in the race for most deaths with least total score.

jet

A soft black gem worth 850 zorkmids.

jettyplay

cross-platform Java GUI ttyrec player: [http://nethack4.org]

jewelers

A shop. Sells and buys rings, gems and amulets.

jilles

Part of the dgamelaunch development cabal.
NetHack homepage: [http://www.stack.nl]
Besides being an incredible NetHack Player, he also knows the source by heart. There is no question he can't answer.
Ascensions: more than 30

jnethack

[http://nethack.at.infoseek.co.jp]
[http://www.jnethack.org]
JNetHack is Japanized NetHack, with all messages in NetHack translated to Japanese.

john harris

The author of the @Play column about roguelike gaming. [http://gamesetwatch.com]

jonah was here

'What would you write? "Jonah was here"?'
You attempted to (E)ngrave while engulfed by a (non-whirly?) monster.
[https://nethackwiki.com]

joshj

Plays as Cid on NAO. Has promising games ruined by YASDs on a regular basis. The "JoshJ" account is his DfV account.

joshk

One of the NetHack debian package maintainers.
Part of the dgamelaunch development cabal.

jubiblex

A less common misspelling for Juiblex than Jubilex.

jubilex

see {juiblex}

juiblex

One of the guaranteed demon lords found in Gehennom. He'll swallow and sicken you, so be prepared to either /oDig your way out (reduces him to 1hp), kill him, then cure yourself (holy water or blessed unihorn), or just wail on him from inside and then cure yourself.
The only monster which you can just kill once; he is stoning resistant and doesn't leave a corpse. You may give him a "oLS and slow/haste him to make him put it on, but it will still count as only one kill.
Flies, floats, flows under doors, amphibious, headless, sees invisible, acidic and poisonous if eaten.
Attempts at pluralization are futile. (Juiblexen?)
Juiblex only causes illness when he engulfs you or when he teleports to the stairs.

juiblexpress

A method of leaving Gehennom quickly. Wait for Juiblex to engulf, unihorn, hit him so he teleports to < to heal, dig out, go < with him following, repeat

jump

see {#jump}

jumping

see {#jump}

jumping boots

These leather boots drop AC by one and allow jumping via the #jump command. Their unidentified appearance is random - see boots.

junethack

THE GREATEST TOURNEY OF THEM ALL. Next time 1.6.2017 - 30.6.2017
[https://junethack.net]

jungle boots

Either the unidentified elven, kicking, fumble, levitation, jumping, speed or water walking boots.

k

Command: 'k' Move up if you have embraced the one-true-path-of-vi-movement-keys. For heretics, k will kick something (same as ^D).
Command: 'K' Move up until you hit a wall or something (vi keys on).
Monster: 'k' Poisonous, icky kobolds. In addition to the plain kobold, there are large kobolds, kobold lords, and kobold shamans.
Monster: 'K' Keystone Kops, Kop Sergeants, Kop Lieutenants, and Kop Kaptains. Warning: Corpses count as human.

k-ration

Food. Weight: 10. Nutrition: 400. Takes 1 turn to consume. Does not break vegan conduct.

kaablamm!_ you hear an explosion in the distance!

A monster had exploded a landmine.

kaboom

You just got paralyzed by lightning in a thunderstorm in the Plane of Air
Your ring of free action did not protect you!

kaboom!!!

see {Kaboom}

kabuto

Japanese helmet.

kadoom!_the boulder falls in!

You made a hole in a tile with a boulder, and the boulder instantly filled the hole. No items/monsters on the square had a chance to fall through.

kaen

see {master_kaen}

katana

Like a long sword, only better. Costs 80 zorkmids, weighs 40, and is made of iron, which means it can rust. Its unidentified appearance is "samurai sword". Deals d10 damage to small creatures and d12 damage to large ones.
Dipping a katana will never create Excalibur, just a thoroughly rusty katana. So don't try it!

kebab

see {kebabable}

kebabable

Monsters you gain a +2 to-hit bonus against when using a spear or javelin.
These monsters include (and are limited to): XDJNH (Xorns, Dragons, Jabberwocks, Nagas, Giants, Titans and Minotaurs)

kelp

see {kelp_frond}

kelp frond

A type of food that is only generated in water. There is nothing really special about it. Nutrition 30, weight 1.
It's veggy.

kerio

see {troll}

key

An unidentified skeleton key. See {unlocking_tools}.

keystone kop

see {keystone_kops}
Eaten: Keystone Kop Nutr: 200 Effects: Human

keystone kops

see {kops}

ki-rin

An angelic being, with speed 18, AC -5, MR 90%, does 2d4 + 2d4 + 3d6 damage and casts magic spells for 2d6.
Makes a great steed, since it flies, moves very fast, can use a unihorn, can wear amulets, and equip armor besides body armor and cloaks.

kicking a wall

Kicking a wall will cause d5 damage if the character's constitution is less than 16. Only d3 damage is inflicted if the characters constitution is greater than 15.
Perhaps the only profitable exerice of this action would be to lower one's hit points 1/7 of one's maximum hit points, or below 6 total hit points, which would restore one's hit points fully with a successful #pray'er.

kicking an altar

Kicking an altar can incur the wrath of the owning God, lowering your luck by one.

kicking boots

Iron boots that drop AC by 1, gives additional damage to kicking, and provides martial arts bonuses. Their unidentified appearance is random - see boots.

killed by a soldier ant

A very common death.

killed by a wand

"Killed by a wand" always means it was a wand of striking.

killed by an exploding rune

see {reading spells}

killed by an unsuccessful polymorph

"Your new form doesn't seem healthy enough to survive..."
Oops, your polymorph dropped your HP or maxHP below 0.

killed by touching the edge of the universe

A currently impossible death included in dothrow.c.
In order to get this death, you must attempt to pass through a no-dig non-wall partition.

killer bee

Its corpse is poisonous but can grant poison resistance when eaten (30%).
They come in swarms and appear en masse in beehives.
If you feel that you can't quite handle the situation - never go for luck. They always win... Those bastards.
Luckily, they respect Elbereth.
Eaten: killer bee Nutr: 5 Effects: Poisonous Intrinsic: Poison: 30%
Difficulty 5, stings for 1d3, AC -1.

killing pets

see {you_hear_the_rumble_of_distant_thunder}

king arthur

The knight quest leader.
Eaten: King Arthur Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

kitchen sink

You can quaff from it, kick it, drop a ring in it or dig down on it.
Levitating or flying over it will cause you to drop on it (dealing d8 + 24 - con damage), and thrown objects will stop on the sink.
Quaffing from or kicking sinks is dangerous for early characters.
Kicking a sink can create a black pudding, a foocubus (of opposite gender if you're humanoid), or a ring. You can only get one of each per sink.
Falling onto a sink while levitating will cause you to stop levitating, and it will take off any items that are causing you to levitate (even if cursed). Certain levitating monsters will not fall (floating eye).
Drinking from a sink can polymorph you.
Dropping a ring on a sink will cause it to vanish 95% of the time and give a unique message you can identify it with. (Searching and slow digestion will always survive this trip)
See also: [http://www.steelypips.org]

kitten

Speed 18, AC 6, bites for 1d6 damage. Eating its corpse gives you aggravate monster intrinsic, unless you're exempt from cannibalism.
For some reason, you can tame them with fortune cookies and pancakes, or a quickly thrown corpse in a pinch.
Eaten: kitten Nutr: 150 Effects: Aggravate

klein bottle

A bottle with only one side that contains itself.
<[http://en.wikipedia.org]

klunk

Sound you hear when you use a wand of locking on a large box/chest

kni

see {knight}

kni skills

Basic: dagger, knife, pickaxe, scimitar, club, flail, hammer, trident, bow. Skilled: axe, short sword, broad sword, two handed sword, saber, mace, morning star, polearms, spear, javelin, crossbow, attack spells, healing spells, cleric spells, two weapon combat. Expert: long sword, lance, riding, bare handed combat.

knight

Honorable, charismatic, meat in a can. Can also jump like the chess piece.
Salutations! The Knight is a lawful human warrior, who can achieve Expert skill in long swords, lances, riding and bare-handed combat (and can become Skilled with two weapons). They're lawful and they start with a long sword, so #dipping for Excalibur is highly recommended.
Knight rank titles: Gallant (xplvl 1-2), Esquire (3-5), Bachelor (6-9), Sergeant (10-13), Knight (14-17), Banneret (18-21), Chevalier/Chevaliere (22-25), Seignieur/Dame (26-29), Paladin (30)
They also have the ability to turn undead, just like a priest.
Intrinsic abilities: 7: Speed.
Knights have a huge advantage during full moons: the +1 luck effectively eliminates the chance of lance-breakage during jousting. (.4% per hit to .008% per hit)
Knights may become specialized in any of the following magics: Attack, Healing, Clerical
There's a Knight FAQ at [http://sartak.org] - it covers knight stuff, jousting, jumping, and more.
Eaten: knight Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

knight artifact

The Magic Mirror of Merlin

knight faq

[http://sartak.org] - under construction!

knock

Level 1 matter spell. The same as a wand of opening.

kobold

Kobold, Large kobold, Kobold lord and Kobold shaman. Low-level weak monsters. Their corpses are poisonous.
Eaten: kobold Nutr: 100 Effects: Poisonous

kobold lord

Eaten: kobold lord Nutr: 200 Effects: Poisonous

kobold shaman

A type of kobold that enjoys pointing at things and cursing at them. Their corpses are poisonous.
Eaten: kobold shaman Nutr: 150 Effects: Poisonous

kol

Kingdom of Loathing
A browser-based mmorpg that totally rips off ascension, ascension tricks and conducts, and bad graphics from NetHack, but is otherwise completely dissimilar.
It used to be part of a /dev/null tournament challenge, but because of changes in the code, that had to be disabled.

konso

A bit-higher-than-mediocre nethack player.
Ascensions in chronological order: Wiz Sam Rog Kni Hea

kop kaptain

Eaten: Kop Kaptain Nutr: 200 Effects: Human

kop lieutenant

Eaten: Kop Lieutenant Nutr: 200 Effects: Human

kop sergeant

Eaten: Kop Sergeant Nutr: 200 Effects: Human

kops

The Keystone Kops was a series of silent film comedies featuring a incompetent group of policemen produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917.
The Kops attack you if you try to be clever about stealing from shops, but fail at the aforementioned cleverness.

kos

The chaotic god of rogues.
Kos hits! Your purse feels lighter.

koto

Japanese wooden harp.

koyaan

valkyrie wizard monk
Now with less abusive behaviour!

kraken

A bigger, nastier eel (with accompanying drowning attack) that is usually found in the late game.
A huge sea monster in Norwegian legend - sometimes depicted as dwarfing ships, and capsizing them - either by accident due to its great bulk, or in order to eat the crewmen.
Krakens are a good choice to genocide if you don't know the B/U/C status of the scroll, because they are a good genocide choice anyway but if the scroll is cursed they are really easy to kill since they don't usually attack out of water. Also, they give good experience.
Dead easy to farm, if you have a reliable way to cast Turn Undead. Build a fortress out of boulders, engrave E under them, teleport in and reverse geno kraken. Once you have it set up, it's a matter of casting Turn Undead and meleeing them to death or casting a spell like MM or FoD.
Eaten: kraken Nutr: 1000

kraken farming

Done to the extreme by Babamus and art.
Place a row of krakens and repeatedly finger of death and turn undead them. Yields great amounts of items and experience points.

kriebly

<kriebly> pray if you start to get hard

kroisos

see {Croesus}

l

Command: 'l' Move right if you have embraced the one-true-path-of-vi-movement-keys. For heretics, l will loot containers beneath you or a saddle from a tame mount beside you. (Same as #loot or Meta-l for the faithful).
Command: 'L' Move right until you hit a wall or something (vi keys on).
Monster: 'l' Who just took your gold? It was that green 'l' over there, otherwise known as a leprechaun, which is the only monster represented by a lowercase 'l'.
Monster: 'L' Run away! Run away! Seriously, run away! Liches, demiliches, master liches, and arch-liches are all represented by an uppercase letter 'L'. A good genocide choice for any character.

lack of nethack

Not enough NetHack.. A dangerous condition that has only one cure...

lag

The lag monster's effects are occasionally felt at telnet://nethack.alt.org, but few have ever seen him.

lama

see {priest}

lament

see {yasd}

lamp

Unidentified description of either a magic lamp or an oil lamp.
Apply or wield the lamp to light it. Applying is suggested, since it is difficult to kill monsters with a lamp.
In a store oil lamp will be around 10 and a magic lamp around 50 zorkmids

lance

Attacks as a regular weapon. a)pply it to attack two squares infront of you.
Also do extra damage when attacking with them from a steed.

land mine

A trap that goes KAABLAMM! when you step on it. You'll fall into a pit and your legs will be injured. You'll also be hurt.
Levitation/flying have a chance of still triggering the mine, but you won't fall into the resulting pit. Also, your legs will not be harmed.
If you succesfully find and untrap one without it going 'splodey you can carry it around with you and plant it in a new location.

landmine

see {land_mine}

large box

possibly locked container. Weighs as much as banded mail, slightly over half as much as a chest. Take care when opening or unlocking; may be trapped. Can be #forced and kicked.

large cat

Speed 15, AC 4, bites for 2d4 damage. Eating its corpse gives you aggravate monster intrinsic, unless you're exempt from cannibalism.
Eaten: large cat Nutr: 250 Effects: Aggravate

large dog

Speed 15, AC 4, bites for 2d4 damage. Eating its corpse gives you aggravate monster intrinsic, unless you're exempt from cannibalism.
Eaten: large dog Nutr: 250 Effects: Aggravate

large kobold

Eaten: large kobold Nutr: 150 Effects: Poisonous

large mimic

see {mimic}
Eaten: large mimic Nutr: 400 Effects: Mimic (40)

large round shield

see {dwarvish_roundshield}

large shield

An iron shield that, unenchanted, will drop AC by 2.

larn

An ancient roguelike.

lart

Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool
A typical example of a LART is a 2x4 wooden striking implement.
Formerly a #nethack ! command.

last-bite

The Last-Bite Rule: When eating corpses, any intrinsics you might gain are obtained when you reached the last bite, not before. Yes, that means you have to eat the _whole_ giant, dragon, or other hard-to-stomach beast in your search for greatness.
However, those negative effects, such as major heartburn, food poisoning, and petrification, occur with the first bite. Note that food poisoning will occur even from a partially-eaten corpse.
Also note that the curing lizard effect occurs on the first bite.

laughter

"You heard laughter." A gremlin attacked you and stole an intrinsic.
"You heard maniacal laughter [close by|in the distance.]" A scroll of scare monster was read [and some monsters were affected|but no monsters were around to be terrorized]

lava

A very hot surface that you shouldn't step on. Doing so without fire resistance causes you to burn to a crisp, which can be very unpleasant.
Hot. Pain. Sink. Die.
If you do have fire resistance, stepping on a lava tile will cause you to become stuck. Eventually, you will sink and die. Popular methods of extricating yourself include zapping a wand of cold downward and digging down with a pickaxe, and using a wand of teleport on yourself. Simply walking out may also work, but isn't guaranteed.
Boots or a spell of jumping can also get you out. Of course, it's easier just to use a ring of levitation, boots of levitation, or fireproof boots of waterwalking to avoid the lava entirely.

lawful

Some actions performed by lawful players have penalties. See ?? evil_coward, and ?? caitiff
See [https://nethackwiki.com] for advantages and disadvantages

lawful artifact weapons

Demonbane, Excalibur, Grayswandir, Snickersnee, and Sunsword are the lawful artifact weapons. All except Excalibur can result from #offering.

laziness

The number one cause of stupid deaths in NetHack

lazy

A synonym for "dead".

learn

see {!learn}

learndb

see {!learn}

leash

A tool for keeping your pet at close range.
If you are faster than your pet, remember to wait regularly.
You may leash your pet and it will attack co-aligned creatures without those creatures turning against you.
Cursed leashes will choke your pet if you pull on its leash, reducing its tameness and dealing it 1d2 damage. If a monster dies from being choked with a cursed leash, it is considered to be killed by you.
Note that this will never reduce the tameness below 1, so choking a pet with a cursed leash will never make it go wild. Unbreathing pets will not take damage, but still suffer the tameness penalty.

leather armor

Drops AC by 2 and does not hinder spellcasting. Weight is 150.

leather armour

see {leather_armor}

leather cloak

Provides AC 1 and MC1.

leather drum

Applying this has the effect of "causing fear" upon *most* nearby opponents, causing them to be "scared" ... will not anger shop keepers and also has no effect on the tameness of pets. However it will awaken nearby monsters due to "noise" (abuses wisdom)

leather gloves

Also known as yugake, leather gloves are relatively common, and drop AC by 1.

leather golem

When killed, drops a bunch of leather armor

leather hat

see {elven leather helm}

leather jacket

Lowers AC by 1 and weighs 30.

legacy

Configuration option. Display an introductory message when starting the game.

lembas wafer

An elven food that costs 45 zorkmids each, only weighs 5, is worth 800 nutrition, and is consumed in 2 turns.
The lembas wafer is superior to the food ration in that it weighs one fourth as much while providing the same nutrition and can be eaten in three turns fewer.
The lembas wafer is the most bestest food in the game.
but < Bethrezen> royal jelly is 200 nutrition and only weighs 2

lemming

A train of people asking Rodney about the same thing in succession.
A supporter of (insert your least favorite politician here.)
Oddly enough, not a hallucinated monster, despite the popularity of the game Lemmings.

lemure

A very slow minor demon, appears in large groups. Sleep and poison resistant, and never leaves a corpse. Does 1d3 damage.

lenses

see {pair of lenses}

leocrotta

a quadruped, speed 18, AC 4, magic resistance 10%, does 2d6 + 2d6 + 2d6 melee damage.
< Cheapy> Leocrottas are hard to explain; They are basically a bunch of animals in one < tweek__> bottom line: if you see one, run like fuck
A good way to kill one is to zap a wand of sleeping at it and then hit to death with melee
Eaten: leocrotta Nutr: 500

leppie

A leprechaun

leprechaun

These little fiends are not a big threat, even to unexperienced adventurers. They do little damage and will fall to brute force and magic spells equally well. But they are fast, they can teleport and are able to steal your gold. So always have some means of either securing your cash or killing them quickly.
They can only teleport if they steal gold from you, or from the floor at your feet. They can't teleport after stealing gold that's lying on the ground away from you. So either drop your gold and *step away from it* or stash it away in a sack before fighting them.
A neat trick if you're being chased by a greedy leprechaun is to throw your gold at him. He'll catch it but won't teleport away, but he'll probably stop chasing you.
See also leprechaunflict.
Eaten: leprechaun Nutr: 30 Intrinsic: Teleportitis: 50%

leprechaun hall

Special room. Contains leprechauns and gold.
Frequency: 1/8, DL 6+.

leprechaunflict

Getting a leprechaun to repeatedly steal from a priest.
This is best done with a pet leprechaun, but it can be done with hostile leprechauns, and usually requires a ring of conflict.
A leprechaun's attack will steal gold from its target. To repeatedly rebuy protection, put leprechauns -- tame means you can whistle them back -- in the same room as a priest, and then cause conflict. The leprechauns (if they don't die first) will steal zorkmids from the priest, and then teleport away.
The Valley of the Dead is no-teleport, but getting a horde of leprechauns there may be tricky; try a cursed scroll of genocide and some source of taming.

leprechauns

Plural for 'Leprechaun'.

lessons learned the easy way

NetHack is like, really hard and stuff.

lessons learned the hard way

This has been moved to [https://nethackwiki.com]
NEVER use force bolt to break down doors in Minetown, especially if it is Izchak's door!

lethargic

"You feel momentarily lethargic." You stepped on an anti-magic trap, but no mana was drained because your max is 0.
"You feel very lethargic." You stepped on an anti-magic trap with magic resistance, and lost more than 1/4 of your current health.
"You feel unbearably torpid!" You stepped on an anti-magic trap with magic resistance, lost all your health, and died.

level drain

Attacks from W, V, and Demogorgon may lower your xlevel. Killing them should give enough XP to regain the last level drained from you.
A level drain lowers your experience to one point below what is required for your current level.

level sounds

See: [http://www.steelypips.org]

level teleport trap

This trap causes the creature on it to go to a different level, at random if there's no teleport control to help out. They can take creatures from the Valley of the Dead to the Dungeons of Doom.
For details of where things can get sent, see uncontrolled_level_teleport.
These dudes start showing up on dlv5.

level teleporter

see {level teleport trap}

levitation

You're floating, what's to know?
Side effects: you will not affect engravings while levitating and you cannot go down ladders or pick up items. Thusly, getting cursed boots or ring of levitation is considered a "Major Problem" by $DEITY, and as such, subject to fixing by prayer.
B/U/C status has no effect on levitation from worn items, besides the expected problems of removing cursed items.
You can also remove cursed levitation items by floating onto a sink.

levitation boots

These leather boots drop AC by 1 and cause the wearer to levitate. They also tend to be cursed. Their unidentified appearance is random - see boots.
Many players prefer using a ring of levitation instead, which frees up the foot slot for boots of speed.

levitation wresting

see {engrave_wresting}

lg

see {!lg}

lich

The lowest of the Ls, but still has enough reasons to genocide all of them (Level 11, AC 0, MR 30). Eep.
It probably resists some stuff too (cold, sleep, poison), and you can't eat it either, just to taunt you.
You can beat it

lichen

A plant whose "corpse" does not rot.
Those green lumps are easy to overcome and their "corpses" are a perfect source of nutrition for the long-term adventurer.
Slow moving fungus that doesn't do damage, but can stick to you. Its corpse is veggy and doesn't rot.
Note that the corpse has 1/4 the nutritional value of a food ration.
Always keep a corpse in your main inventory when you are on the wimpy side. It can be tossed at horses (tames), cats and dogs (makes them peaceful) for beneficial effects if you can't afford to fight. (Also useful as a backup when in need of food.)
Eaten: lichen Nutr: 200 V!

lieutenant

Eaten: lieutenant Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

light blue aura

It uncurses everything in your main inventory that is cursed.
Possible result from #praying on an altar. Also the result of #dipping an uncursed item in holy water.
Praying on an altar might result in blessing and repairing (but not protecting) your held weapon. "Your <weapon> softly glows with a light blue aura."

lighting store

A shop. Shopkeeper is Izchak. Sells and buys wax and tallow candles, brass lanterns, oil and magic lamps. Never randomly generated, this one can be found in the mine town.

lightning wand

See {wand_of_lightning}.

lilting melody

The harp is not magical, sorry.
This can also indicate a magic harp without charges.

liquor emporium

A shop. Sells and buys potions.

liquor store

Liquor stores are run by shopkeepers named: Njezjin, Tsjernigof, Ossipewsk, Gorlowka, Gomel, Konosja, Weliki Oestjoeg, Syktywkar, Sablja, Narodnaja, Kyzyl, Walbrzych, Swidnica, Klodzko, Raciborz, Gliwice, Brzeg, Krnov, Hradec Kralove, Leuk, Brig, Brienz, Thun, Sarnen, Burglen, Elm, Flims, Vals, Schuls, and Zum Loch.

list of fixable bugs

Change the wording for 'choked on an a very rich meal'

lit corridor

Configuration option. Distinguish visually between lit and unlit corridors.

little dog

Speed 18, AC 6, bites for 1d6 damage. Eating its corpse gives you aggravate monster intrinsic, unless you're exempt from cannibalism.
For some reason, you can tame them with fortune cookies and pancakes, or a quickly thrown corpse in a pinch.
Eaten: little dog Nutr: 150 Effects: Aggravate

lizard

The corpse is best kept in the main inventory (not a container) so you do not miss a turn if you start stiffening.
A lizard corpse never rots. Eating one will stop the petrification caused by cockatrices or chickatrices, as will any acidic corpse.
See also {new moon}
Eaten: lizard Nutr: 40 Effects: Cure stoning Reduce stunning, confusion

lizard corpse

see {lizard}

llthw

see {lessons_learned_the_hard_way}

loadstone

Weighs a ton (500). Autocurses. Easily identified from other gray stones by kicking; loadstone just goes *thump*
People with kicking boots and/or good bare handed combat / martial arts skills may be able to kick the loadstone a small distance. Normal gray stones go pretty far when kicked, so beware!
If you end up with one, you can uncurse it to drop it. Beware, as it recurses when you get rid of it!
A slightly odder way to remove it is to zap yourself with stone-to-flesh. Remove all other stone items from inventory first.

lock pick

Rogues get a small bonus when using lock picks.
See unlocking_tools.
It is safe to pick the lock of a locked merchant shop ("Closed for inventory"); the merchant will not call upon the Kops.

locking tools

see {unlocking_tools}

lockpick

see {unlocking tools}

lodestone

see {loadstone}

login

You can automatically login to NAO by passing "-l yourusername:yourpassword" as additional parameters (with GNU telnet).
If you're using PuTTY, set "yourusername:yourpassword" as your auto-login username (Connection > Data) for the same effect.
If you want to start PuTTY with command line arguments, "putty -l yourusername:yourpassword -telnet nethack.alt.org" seems to work, too.

loki

The chaotic god of the Valkyrie pantheon

long poleaxe

see {bardiche}

long sword

A long sword does 1d8 damage against small monsters and 1d12 against large monsters. K, S, and V can become expert at using long swords.

long worm

a monster which takes up multiple tiles on the map. It may split into two worms if you hit its tail with a bladed weapon. Only its head may attack. When killed, it drops a worm tooth (useful for making into a crysknife).
Eaten: long worm Nutr: 500

longbow of diana

The Ranger quest artifact. This bow confers telepathy while carried and reflection while wielded; it can be invoked to create arrows. Has a +d5 bonus to-hit against all monsters when firing from it.
Uncursed #invoke creates 7-16 uncursed arrows, blessed #invoke creates 7-21 blessed arrows, cursed #invoke creates 6-11 cursed arrows.

looking glass

A mirror. Breaking it brings bad luck (-2). Applying one to a monster has an 80% chance of scaring it.
Applying a mirror while blind and telepathic may reveal the location of certain unique creatures.
Applying a looking glass toward a nymph will cause the nymph to steal the looking glass instead of another item from your inventory.
There are some exceptions to scaring a monster with a mirror: Humanoids, unicorns, blind creatures, nymphs, and invisible creatures (unless they can see invisible).
One of many ways to scare monsters at range.

looks uneasy

see {uneasy_feeling}

loot

see {#loot}

lootabc

Configuration option. Use the old `a', `b', and `c' keyboard shortcuts when looting.

lord carnarvon

The archeologist quest leader.
Eaten: Lord Carnarvon Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

lord sato

The Samurai quest leader.
Eaten: Lord Sato Nutr: 400 Effects: Human

lord surtur

The Valkyrie quest nemesis (a giant humanoid "H").
Don't forget E, if you have lousy AC. He's not actually that hard, try doing him with 4 AC
Eaten: Lord Surtur Nutr: 850 Effects: Strength Intrinsic: Fire: 100%

lorimer

You see nothing special.
You feel as if something is watching you...
You feel very sick. You suddenly vomit!

los

Line of sight. Roughly speaking, everything you can see with your eyes is in your LOS and everything else isn't.
Note: Your average nethack character has 360 degree vision, i.e. eyes in the back of their head. This is a consequence of not having 'facing' code which is difficult to implement in a streamline manner.

lost password

See [http://alt.org]

loud splash

The sound you get when striking (or force-bolting) down the drawbridge, while blind.
"You hear a loud *SPLASH!*"

low boots

Leather boots that drop AC by 1 and have the unidentified appearance of 'walking shoes'.

lowest score

Lowest scoring NAO ascensions: [http://alt.org]

lowest single kill

In the list of creatures vanquished, the lowest entry that is a single kill (as opposed to none, or 2 or more). This is useless trivia of an Ascension.

lsk

see {lowest_single_kill}

lucern hammer

A pole-arm. Is a two-handed weapon, costs 7 zorkmids, weighs 150, and is made out of iron. Unidentified appearance is a pronged polearm. Deals 2d4 damage to small creatures and d6 to large ones.

luck

Your character normally starts with 0 luck (neither good nor bad). Certain events in the game will raise or lower your luck. Normally, your luck will gravitate toward 0 over time, but a luckstone will prevent your luck from "timing out" (depending on b/u/c status).
Luck affects many aspects of the game, but the most important is a straight bonus or penalty to your to-hit rolls.
Starting or restoring a game during a full moon will set your base luck to 1; Starting or restoring a game on Friday the 13th will set your base luck to -1.
These luck modifications are disabled when you save the game.
Contrary to popular belief, a new moon does NOT have any effect on your luck.
Enlightenment will partially reveal your luck value with a message: -13..-10 "extremely unlucky" -9..-5 "very unlucky" -4..-1 "unlucky" 1..4 "lucky" 5..9 "very lucky" 10..13 "extremely lucky".
Luck times out at the rate of 1 every 600 turns normally; however, if your god is angry and/or you are carrying the amulet, it changes by 1 every 300 turns.
See also: [http://www.steelypips.org]

luckstone

Normally your luck changes by one point every 600 turns towards 0. Luckstones control this. A cursed one stops it rising, blessed stops it falling, and an uncursed one does both.
A cursed luckstone subtracts 3 luck, all others add 3. You can still lose/gain luck by other means. More than one luckstone does not add more luck.
See also {gray stone}, {luck}.
The Barbarian quest artifact - The Heart of Ahriman - is one of these.

lucky

You are: extremely unlucky (-11<=luck<=-10) very unlucky (-10<luck<=-5) unlucky (-5<luck<0) lucky (0<luck<5) very lucky (5<=luck<10) extremely lucky (10<=luck<=11)
This luck does NOT include the +3 luck from a noncursed luckstone, or the -3 luck from a cursed luckstone.

ludios

see {fort_ludios}

lugh

The lawful god of the Knight pantheon.

lump of royal jelly

see {royal_jelly}

lumps of royal jelly

see {royal_jelly}

lurker above

It's like a trapper except instead of trapping it's lurking. Also, it's above.
Eaten: lurker above Nutr: 350

luxidream

<qt_> I went in riding a horse, got an impossible() about placing it on the map, ended up on the other side of the portal riding luxidream the Barbarian
[https://www.youtube.com]

lvlfiles

A command that lists the number of levels that an active player has visited.

lycanthropy

Gained when eating a werecreature corpse or bitten by a werecreature in animal form.
Removed with eating a sprig of wolfsbane, quaffing holy water, or praying.
While in monster form, you can summon pets with #monster, but you'll use food.
Lycanthropes are werejackal, wererat and werewolf.
Lycanthropes are vulnerable to wielded or thrown holy water. Especially useful as a cornered priest.
Lycanthrope corpses are human, so beware of sacrificing or eating if human.
In addition to granting lycanthropy 100% of the time lycanthrope corpses are poisonous and will not grant poison resistance, so take care.

lynx

Level 5, speed 15, grant no resistances.
You can view [http://alt.org] on this web browser!
Eaten: lynx Nutr: 300

m

Prefix: 'm' Usage: m[yuhjklbn] Move in a direction without picking up objects or fighting (even if you remember a monster there). Assumes vi keys on.
Prefix: 'M' Usage: M[yuhjklbn] Move far, no pickup.
Monster: 'm' Mimics. Includes large and giant variants. Usually hiding as another symbol.
Monster: 'M' Mummies, or, things too old to eat or sacrifice. Varieties are kobold, gnome, orc, dwarf, elf, human, ettin and giant.
Command: 'Meta-m' Same as '#monster'.

m2 nasty

This monster flag makes you gain more experience for killing a monster. Additionally, some monsters have a higher chance of getting better weapons if they have this flag.
It is also used to distinguish between baby dragons and adult dragons.

mace

Priest starting weapon. Deals 1d6+1/1d6 for small/large monsters.
Weighs 30.
Priests and Cavemen can get expert, Rogues, Knights and Barbarians can get skilled, Healer, Tourist and Wizard can get basic.
The Caveman artifact - The Sceptre of Might - is one of these.

macros

The method of copy-pasting sections of text (which are interpreted by NetHack as individual commands) to automate long and tedious processes (usually farming) in NetHack.

mag

see {maniac}

maganasipi

A shopkeeper named Maganasipi will be running a general store.

magenta

The colour used to refer to the baddest monsters available. If you see a magenta monster that isn't an F or an x, watch out...

magic bane

Do not wish for "an athame named Magic Bane".
If Magicbane were intelligent, it would be insulted.

magic cancellation

Magic cancellation lowers the chance of success of the following special melee attacks against you: fire, cold, electricity, sleep, poison, paralysis, level drain, lycanthropy, teleport, energy drain, slime, sticking to mimics, intrinsic speed stealing (shades/skeletons), and disenchanting. It does NOT affect the success probability of ray or gaze attacks, nor does it prevent monsters cursing your equipment.
There are four levels of magic cancellation: 0 (no cancellation), 1 (~33% chance), 2 (~65% chance) and 3 (~98% chance)
See "mc1", "mc2", and "mc3" for more details.
Magic cancellation does not stack, instead it uses the greatest magic cancellation item you have equipped. For example, having a cornuthaum and an alchemy smock equipped results in MC2.

magic flute

May put nearby monsters to sleep, exercises dexterity. Affects monsters that are less than sqrt(xplevel*5) away. Base price 36zm, more expensive than the 12zm wooden flute.
Acts as a wooden flute if it has no charges.

magic fountain

Some fountains are magic. When quaffed from with nonnegative luck, they have a 2/3 chance of giving blessed restore ability and blessed or uncursed gain ability, and an 1/3 chance of "The cool draught refreshes you." (some nutrition).
1/7 of all fountains are magic, but the only way to see is quaffing from them.
The gain ability effect will be blessed if your luck is at least 4. If luck is 0-3, it's uncursed. If your luck is negative, you'll never know it's a magic fountain.

magic harp

A chargeable tool that, when applied, charms monsters and exercises dexterity. Radius of effect is sqrt((xplevel-1)/3+1).
e.g. 1 at XL 1, 2 at XL 10.

magic items

A slightly dated spoiler listing magical items can be found at [http://www.nethack.de]

magic lamp

#rub a blessed one for an 80% chance of a wish (from a djinni). Otherwise they make a great permanent light source, which is actually often preferable in endgame when you don't need more wishes. Uncursed and cursed magic lamps provide the permanent light, but don't #rub them if you want a wish.
The easist way to ID a magic lamp is by the high price (50-100 versus 5-15 for oil). You can also light it and see if it goes out within a couple thousand turns. If an unID'd lamp is already blessed, it doesn't hurt to #rub it anyway.
Cancelling a magic lamp gives an uncursed magic lamp.

magic mapping

A spell in both scroll and spellbook form which reveals the layout of a dungeon level.
A blessed scroll reveals secret doors; cursed or confused maps 1/7 of the squares on the level.
The spell acts as an uncursed scroll.
Levels that cannot be magically mapped (and will confuse you if you try) are the Catacombs version of Mines' End, the first Rogue quest level, the Valley of the Dead, the Sanctum, and the Astral Plane.

magic marker

Apply a magic marker to write on a scroll of blank paper or on a blank spellbook.
You can write unknown scrolls by description (ie, XIXAXA as opposed to "identify"); wizards have 1 in 3, other classes 1 in 15 chance of succeeding. Writing unknown spellbooks by appearance (ie, "silver spellbook" as opposed to "polymorph") is not possible.
Bless/curse status of the resulting scroll/spellbook is the sum of the b/u/c status of both the marker and the medium (if <0, cursed; if 0, uncursed; if >0, blessed, assuming cursed = -1, uncursed = 0, and blessed = +1).
They are generated with 30 - 99 charges, and can only be recharged once. An uncursed scroll of charging will add 10 - 20 charges, and then bring the marker to a minimum of 50 charges. Blessed scrolls of charging add 15 - 30, and then set the charge to 50 if below 50, or 75 if between 51 and 75.
The number of charges used in writing a spellbook is a random number between LVL*5 and LVL*10-1, where LVL is the spell's level.
The number of charges used in writing a scroll or book is a random number between X/2 and X-1. See {ink} for the values of X. If you have less than X/2 charges, you won't even attempt to write the scroll.
Your chance to write unknown spellbooks increases with your luck to a maximum of about 98% for wizards and 32% for other classes.
"The pen is mightier than the sword."
You can write (scribble) Elbereth on the ground with a magic marker. This is a semi-permanent engraving, just like a wand of digging or athame. Every two letters uses one charge, so Elbereth takes only four charges.

magic mirror of merlin

The Knight quest artifact. Lawful. Confers magic resistance and telepathy when carried. Doubles some of your spell damages, if you are a knight. Apply to get rumors. #invoking it has no effect.
Knights get double damage when using force bolt, undead turning, magic missile, drain life, cone of cold or wand of striking

magic missile

Level 2 attack spell. Special spell of the wizards.
Deals (1+(XL/2))d6 + damage bonus worth of damage, making it much more powerful for high level casters than for low level ones. Low level wizards should stick with force bolt the first few levels.
For the unbelievers, force bolt costs 5 and does 2d12 (2-24) damage. Magic missile does 1d6 (1-6) for 10Pw at low levels, and only gets similar damage at XL4 (4d6, 4-24) and even then it still costs twice as much as force bolt...

magic resistance

Magic resistance is technically not essential to ascension, but you'd be insane to face Rodney without it. You can get it from a cloak of magic resistance, or gray dragon scale mail, or some of the quest artifacts.
Magicbane also provides magic resistance when wielded.
It's a bad idea to rely solely on your role's quest artifact for magic resistance, since it can be stolen by Rodney or your quest nemesis.
[http://www.steelypips.org]
For monster magic resistance, see {monster-mr}.

magic spreads

"Magic spreads through your body as you digest the [ring/amulet]." - You ate a ring or amulet and successfully gained an intrinsic from it.

magic tools

see {magical_tools}

magic trap

A trap. There is a 1/30 chance of getting these results: It says "You are caught in a magical explosion!". Lose d10 HP; if you survive, "Your body absorbs some of the magical energy!". Power points increased to max+2, and the trap vanishes.
Otherwise, a random effect can occur as follows:
9/20: "You are momentarily blinded by a flash of light!" (If already blind, "You hear a deafening roar!"; if blinding resistant (Sunsword, poly), "You see a flash of light!".) Blinds for 9+d5 turns, creates d4 monsters around you.
1/20: Same as fire trap ("A tower of flame erupts from the floor!". If not fire resistant, lose 2d4 HP, max HP is reduced by a number between 0 and the HP you lost. Chance of armour being damaged and flammables in inventory being burnt/boiled.)
1/20: "You feel charismatic!" Gain 1 CHA, and tame the monsters immediately around you, and this form of taming can't be resisted.
1/20: "You feel like someone is helping you." (If hallucinating, "You feel in touch with the Universal Oneness.") Acts as uncursed scroll of remove curse; uncurse loadstones, worn and wielded items. Remove ball and chain if being punished.
2/20: Nothing happens, and does it quietly.
6/20: Nothing happens, and any of a number of random messages may be displayed.
Thanks to Dylan O'Donnell < [http://www.nethack.de] >
floating over it will still trigger it.

magic trap boogie

This uses the "You feel charismatic!" effect of magic traps to boost a character's charisma. Move to or #sit on a magic trap and hope for the best. For best results, have fire resistance (since otherwise it's possible for magic traps to reduce maximum hit points) and telepathy (or other way to make blindness no more than an inconvenience).
See {magic_trap} for the requisite details

magic whistle

If non-cursed, apply to produce a "strange whistling sound" ("normal" if hallucinating) and summon pets on the level to your location. If cursed, has 1/2 chance of producing a "high-pitched humming noise" and waking up nearby monsters instead.

magical armor

For polypiling, magical armor is cornuthaum, dunce cap, h of brilliance, h of opp align, h of telep, robe, elven cloak, alchemy smock, c of protect, c of invis, c of magic resist, s of reflect, g of fumbling/power/dex, spd boots, ww boots, jump boots, elven boots, kick boots, fumble boots, lev boots
Magical armor has a 54% chance of turning into non-magical armor when polymorphed.

magical objects

see {wan2}

magical resistance