NetHack 3.0: A Guy What Takes His Time

In a room with a fountain and an imp, and on a level with an altar, Uz the Barbarian contemplates his next moves.

I've discovered a key secret to NetHack through long trial and error: slow the hell down! It's those moments that I go charging through corridors half-cocked, or hold down the SPACE bar to regenerate hit points, that I inevitably meet my demise. After a slew of unsuccessful characters (I'm almost up to 70), I forced myself to pause for a second or two between every movement, and while it's a bit torturous on my impatient brain, I've done a lot better in the game. Going slower allows me to take more time to pelt enemies with missile weapons instead of charging right up on them before I see them, to consult my notes, and to otherwise consider all of my options. My rule of thumb is that if I have to keep hitting CTRL-P to repeat the messages that flash on the screen, I'm going too fast; I should be able to read them as they appear.

Using this method, I started to see a great improvement in my statistics. But I got discouraged after two characters died after reaching dungeon levels 13 and 10, got careless, and lost a lot of new characters on low levels. I took a break for a few days, returned with my "take it slow" strategy in mind, and am now playing a barbarian, Uz, on dungeon level 16 and character level 11. He's my most successful character since Magog, the Valkyrie, died on level 15.

In the course of my playing since last time, I have discovered the following things:

• When "applied," figurines turn into allies. Although I still find allies (including the dog) annoying when trying to navigate, they are undoubtedly useful in combat.
• This is something I "re-discovered": identify scrolls are extremely cheap. If you try to sell one to a merchant, he'll only offer a little; if you try to buy one from a merchant, he only charges a little. This amuses me, because as far as I'm concerned, identify scrolls are the most valuable objects in the game.

Clearly, the shopkeeper knows what it is. Would it have been so bad if you could pay shopkeepers to identify items for you?

 

• When you visit a shop, you want to stand at the end of a row of goods and huck weapons down the row to flush out any mimics that might be hiding there. I find that they do serious damage but also give a lot of experience, and if I get the jump on them I can usually defeat them. Sometimes shops have 3 or 4 mimics.
• Also in stores, if I encounter one on an early level, I find that it pays to buy as many potions and scrolls as I can afford and use them right away. If they do bad things, well, I'm on an early level, so no big deal. Either way, they give me intelligence as to what the items do, which helps enormously later on.
• I found an amulet of ESP but it didn't do anything for me until I was accidentally blinded, at which point I could see everything on the level. I suddenly realized the use of the blindfold that you occasionally find. I also discovered that unicorn horns cure blindness: I was desperately trying everything.
• Lumps of royal jelly found in beehives heal as well as satisfying hunger.
• Wraiths can drain levels, but eating their corpses restore them. Man, I wish this was true of Dungeons & Dragons.
• Eating stone giants increases strength.
• There's no problem with backtracking, especially if food isn't much of an issue. Sometimes it makes sense to squat on a level to get your experience up or find better items. Sometimes it's worth revisiting a store, even if it's six levels ago. I've learned to keep notes on major features on levels. Until recently, I was stuck in Rogue mode, mentally thinking that I always need to keep pushing forward.

I've also developed a more general appreciation for the need to hoard as many useful items as possible. This is not a game that rewards streamlining your inventory. You want to keep every potentially-useful ring and amulet (regardless of which you wear by default) for that one creature it protects against, or that one situation it solves.

Uz has had some interesting adventures and close calls. On one level, I nearly died at the jaws of a wolf. In desperation, I tried an unidentified potion. It lifted me up through the ceiling and deposited me on the previous level. Nice.

On Level 12, I ran into a succubus who seduced my dull barbarian. The game told me that it "raised me to my full potential." I'm not sure what it did for me statistically, but she took almost all my money for the service. Later, I encountered her again and she wanted to fight. I killed her and took my money back.

On Level 15, I entered a room called "Dave's Treasure Zoo," where I was set upon by a host of odd humanoid characters, including a vampire, a nurse, a sergeant, and a couple of gray elves. True to its name, though, there were piles of treasure everywhere. More important, the "sergeant" had a +5 protection ring on him.

Trying to play NetHack without spoilers creates a significant problem: on higher levels, I can't experiment. On level 1 or 2, it's easy to say "let me mess around with this and see what happens" because the consequences are less severe--if you die, you've only wasted a few minutes. Only a lunatic, on the other hand, starts "experimenting" on level 15. I'd love to know what eating a unicorn corpse or a gelatinous cube does, but no way am I going to risk it. I guess this is what "explore mode" is for. For those of you NetHack-philes, how is "explore mode" regarded among serious players? A legitimate way to learn about the game, or an inexcusable exercise in spoilers?

A couple other notes, for which I wouldn't mind some ROT13 hints if you have any.

• There's nothing more frustrating than hearing the sounds of a store on a level ("clinking of change," "someone cursing shoplifters") and not being able to find the secret door to get there.
• I still have no idea how to use fountains and sinks except to occasionally drink from them. Hardly ever does anything good happen when I do this. 
• I find gems everywhere, but shopkeepers hardly ever seem to want them. I'm not sure if they serve any purpose.
• There is literally nothing I hate more than being infected with lycanthropy. Every time you change, you drop all your stuff. I have successfully cured it with prayer, but this doesn't always work. Yes, I understand that there are supposedly benefits, like being able to summon allies, but I find that this doesn't make up for being unarmed and unarmored.
• Since multiple monsters use the same letter or symbol, you have to differentiate them by color. That's a bit of a problem for me, though I'm trying harder to note at least the general color ("reddish" or "blueish") so I can make an educated guess. The difference between Red Mold and a Rust Monster is not trivial.

Rust monsters are bastards.

I keep reading that for NetHack experts, almost every game is "winnable," which means they must know every trick and resource. I certainly don't need to get to the point where I can win every game, but I would like to win one. Maybe Uz will go the distance.

Later edit: Uz ultimately made it to dungeon Level 18. There, he encountered a white dragon and killed it! Even though I was full, I figured no way am I not eating this corpse. I choked while trying to eat it and died. Time to play something else for a while.

Getting killed by the dragon itself would have been a good death.