02-28-2003, 06:48 PM
I picked up nethack about 6 months ago, although I only managed to make it to ~level 8 routinely, and level 11 once.
When you first start off, exploration mode is VERY much your friend - It gives you the option of dying or simply coming back to life whenever something should kill you. The readme has instructions on how to enable it, and as an additional bonus, how to pick up a free wand of wishes with it :) (I had fun playing around with that and genocide scrolls :))
Don't pray too often, it pisses off your God. However, to survive you WILL need to pray on a fairly regular basis.
Elbereth is your friend from what I've heard, although I never used it.
NEVER piss off shopkeepers. They have wands of instant death. Note that kicking down locked doors will often leave you with an angry shopkeeper, although they can usually be placated if you pay for repairs.
Your dog is an invaluable aid to theft if you learn how.
Some corpses are less likely to poison you, and some give you nifty abilities. Figuring out which is which is an important lesson.
In general, keep track of what's happening to you and why, because there is a LOT to learn in this game. There are also some very cool little messages you can get when you do weird things :)
When you first start off, exploration mode is VERY much your friend - It gives you the option of dying or simply coming back to life whenever something should kill you. The readme has instructions on how to enable it, and as an additional bonus, how to pick up a free wand of wishes with it :) (I had fun playing around with that and genocide scrolls :))
Don't pray too often, it pisses off your God. However, to survive you WILL need to pray on a fairly regular basis.
Elbereth is your friend from what I've heard, although I never used it.
NEVER piss off shopkeepers. They have wands of instant death. Note that kicking down locked doors will often leave you with an angry shopkeeper, although they can usually be placated if you pay for repairs.
Your dog is an invaluable aid to theft if you learn how.
Some corpses are less likely to poison you, and some give you nifty abilities. Figuring out which is which is an important lesson.
In general, keep track of what's happening to you and why, because there is a LOT to learn in this game. There are also some very cool little messages you can get when you do weird things :)