27
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of abbreviation ynaq in nethack?
Choosing a means no takebacks are allowed for this choice.
The explanation can be found in the game's code. For example, lines 544 through 548 of /win/tty/wintty.c (windows version, console menu) ...
- 8,752
23
votes
Accepted
What the heck is a Glorkum?
glorkum is part of a debug message used for an object of unknown type in xname, the function Nethack uses to figure out what an object should be called. If you see it, you've encountered a bug.
- 2,053
23
votes
Accepted
Can I safely steal from shops while invisible?
No, if you attempt to enter a shop while invisible, the shopkeeper will block the entrance with the message
[name] detects your presence. "Invisible customers are not welcome!"
If you put on the ...
- 4,546
18
votes
What is the meaning of abbreviation ynaq in nethack?
It's hard to find information on this, and I've often wondered it myself, but it seems to stand for "all". Even the Nethack Wiki doesn't define "ynaq".
In the case of item ...
- 753
14
votes
Accepted
How do I deal with Medusa?
Medusa has a gaze attack that will instantly turn most creatures into stone, provided that they can see her. However, she is not immune to stoning herself, and can be killed by reflecting her own ...
- 4,978
13
votes
How to enter Nethack Quest if Quest Leader is killed?
Unfortunately, there is no way to proceed if your quest leader dies:
If the quest leader is killed or level teleports before you get permission to go down, the game will also be unwinnable.
—...
- 4,546
6
votes
Do pets left alone on a level continue fighting in your absence?
For the most part, Time is paused when you are not on a level. (Source 1)
Your pets should only follow you upstairs if they are adjacent to your position when you use the stairs. They will slowly ...
- 2,144
6
votes
Accepted
Ring of warning vs Ring of ESP
I'm assuming you're playing some NetHack variant, since vanilla NetHack only has a ring of warning and an amulet of ESP, not a ring of ESP.
In any case, given that you already have intrinsic ...
- 4,978
6
votes
Accepted
How to escape from the Stronghold of the Master Assassin?
That does look like a pretty bad situation to find yourself in. Still, if you can just survive long enough, you're bound to sooner or later obtain some solution to your problem, if only via random ...
- 4,978
6
votes
Accepted
How can I get monsters to pick up and use attack wands?
According to the NetHack wiki, intelligent monsters should pick up and use charged attack wands. I just tested this in wizmode and it does work with the riders too.
However, there are a couple of ...
- 4,978
6
votes
Accepted
How do monsters in NetHack attack?
The to-hit formula is covered in detail on the wiki's Armor Class page. The source ref for much of this is in mhitu.c.
I'll summarize the to-hit; there are a lot of special cases based on visibility, ...
- 2,542
5
votes
Accepted
How to stop levitation on Astral Plane?
Finally I found the following message on Nethackwiki:
When you cast it at skilled or expert, the effect is the same as a blessed potion of levitation, leaving you in the air for 250 to 299 turns; ...
- 285
5
votes
Accepted
Can an orc get Sting or Orcrist as a sacrifice gift?
No, you can never be gifted an artifact that hates your current race. Orcs can't receive Sting or Orcrist, and elves will never receive Grimtooth. (For this reason, an elf can always name Sting and ...
- 1,151
5
votes
Accepted
Why was my AC different after death?
Polymorphing yourself is (usually) not permanent. It will eventually revert, either because you ran out of time, or because you ran out of HP and would otherwise have died. Amulets of unchanging ...
- 5,807
4
votes
Accepted
How do I deal with all of these snakes?
You don't.
Fountain quaffing is frowned upon as metagaming near-universally because it adds a highly significant element of luck to gameplay. It's a practice closely associated with start scumming, ...
- 4,546
4
votes
Do certain player actions (e.g. reading spellooks, sorting/BUC testing, trying on armor, etc.) trigger monster generation?
You're imagining things. The generation would happen roughly the same in the same amount of time doing other things. (Technically, any action you take that uses random numbers from the RNG does ...
- 1,151
4
votes
How can I remove poison from a stack of weapons?
If you don't mind spending a healing potion on the project, you can #dip the missiles into one. Common, Extra, and Full strength versions will all do the job.
- 4,987
4
votes
Will dropping the real Amulet of Yendor before spellcasting prevent the extra energy drain?
My apologies, this is something that I should have tried in Wizard Mode. And, in wizmode, the answer is yes. Dropping the amulet does avoid the penalty.
- 1,783
4
votes
Will Rodney try to steal my Quest artifact if my pet wields/carries it?
Actually, it may be a moot question if my Wizard mode tests indicate correctly. I can't seem to get any aligned pet to pick up any Quest artifact, if it's that role's QA. Tried Caveman/Sceptre, ...
- 1,783
4
votes
Accepted
How do you take only some gold out of a sack in Nethack with numpad movement on?
The answer is different for NetHack.exe (the console version with text display) and NetHackW.exe (the default GUI application). This answer is for vanilla 3.6.6; variants might change things. I'm also ...
- 2,542
4
votes
Accepted
How many items are created when a NetHack level is generated?
I can't find this on the wiki either. The relevant source code file is mklev.c, function makelevel(). The copy on the wiki is not well annotated, even on the 3.4.3 copy.
I'll try to summarize it, but ...
- 2,542
3
votes
Is it possible to revive a priest in Orctown?
So I fired up a wizardmode (debug) game and tested this scenerio.
Didn't do exactly what I expected.
So hacked and slashed my way through the orcs. Blessed wand of locking does NOT create locked ...
3
votes
If a smoky potion is diluted, does it still have the same chance of producing a djinni as an undiluted smoky potion?
Yes, the dilution status has no effect at all on how the potion works, with the exception of booze and fruit juice giving less nutrition. Alchemizing potions to get smoky to quaff for wishes is just ...
- 1,151
3
votes
Is there any way to return from explore mode?
Nope. Sorry, can't be done. Entering both eXplore mode and Wizard mode is permanent.
The mention of the save file is because normally, when you restore a saved game, the save file is deleted so you ...
- 31
3
votes
Accepted
Becoming a Wizard
"Wizard mode" is a special mode intended for debugging the game; it's also useful if you want to explore the game with no risk, or play around trying to break things.
In order to enter wizard mode, ...
- 3,021
3
votes
Accepted
Nethack move past seemingly unpassable area
On the gif you link, the central big room actually has 3 pathways on the right: the ones visible now, and 1 more in the middle between these hallways, visible as a . instead of a |.
- 19.7k
3
votes
Accepted
How can I confine my pet rock mole?
What you could do is surround the rock mole with cursed items, as pets won't step on them.
I imagine that a rock mole may still eat cursed metallic items, so you would want to do this with elven ...
- 46
3
votes
Accepted
Differences in consuming items in Nethack vs Slashem
SLASH'EM changes the "use item on ground" command to be the item "." in the regular prompt instead of being a separate prompt. You should see "." included in the items ...
- 2,542
2
votes
Does "player style" Magic Resistance (GDSM, CoMR, etc) and Shield of Reflection protect ex-pets from drain life and taming spells?
The answer to the title question is "No", however there's a lot of special cases involved here.
Will monsters benefit from gear that gives magic resistance or reflection?
Yes. As long as the ...
- 2,542
2
votes
If I found the Quest home level, but haven't spoken to the leader, does the Quest Artifact count as "generated" when wishing for artifacts?
The quest artifact is initially in the possession of your quest nemesis, not your quest leader.
Unless you've visited the bottom level of the quest, your quest artifact won't count as generated yet.
- 4,546
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible