NetHack 3.0: Ascended!

I don't know why it highlights the Amulet of Reflection specifically. I was wearing lots of stuff.

If I die tomorrow, I want my obituary to read:

Chester Bolingbroke died yesterday at his home in Salem, Massachusetts. He was 40 years old. Chet recently ascended in NetHack after spending more than 250 hours over the past year trying.

It very nearly didn't happen. After Ellasar's death at the hands of the Wizard of Yendor, I engaged the game with renewed vigor. A switch had turned in my mind, I feel like I "got" the game for the first time, and my entire playing style changed. My next character, Amalek (I continued to play elves) got to Level 24. Reuben, just after him, made it to Hell. I had maybe a dozen characters who still died in the teens, but for the most part I was able to make it much further than before.

Then came Jo'Ash. By the time he got to the castle level, he had a near-perfect ascension kit. He'd received wishes from both a fountain and a throne, which had granted him a Ring of Teleport Control and a Cloak of Magic Resistance. He had found two Scrolls of Genocide, which were blessed and ready to go. He had every possible intrinsic except for teleportitis. The wand of wishes awaited him in the castle. He was on his way.

While trying to fight the sea monsters in the castle's moat, he blundered into the water and drowned.

I'd absolutely had it at that point. I was resolved never to play NetHack again, and I got a "final rating" posting half-typed. But a couple days later, I was waiting for a routine to process on my computer, and I thought, "what the hell." I fired it up again and selected the next name in my biblical list: Gideon.

Gideon turned out to be my first character to defeat the Wizard of Yendor, my first character to place his hands on the Amulet of Yendor, and my first character to ascend--all at once. It's like I spent a year struggling to play "Frere Jacques" on the piano, and then all of a sudden I blazed through Rachmaninoff's piano concerto number 3. Does this happen for a lot of people? Does the game generally get easy after you get the Amulet, or did I just play a lot more carefully?

I didn't take my first screen shot for Gideon until the castle level, but I recall that by the time he made it to the castle, he had all the intrinsics I wanted except shock resistance, teleport control, and invisibility. But he had rings for all of these things. He'd received the Ring of Teleport Control as a wish for sitting on a throne. Naturally, he had telepathy and a blindfold, a unicorn horn, a pick-axe, and several wands of fire, lighting, and digging, all of which could be used for ELBERETH. He had found a ton of Scrolls of Enchant Armor on the way down, so though he was wearing his original mithril chain, he had an AC of -17 (some enchanted gloves, boots, cloak, shield, and helmet contributed to that, too). He was up to Level 16 thanks to some wraiths he'd defeated and eaten somewhere. Oh, and he'd already found a Scroll of Charging and blessed it.

I didn't have a Scroll of Genocide yet, so I couldn't clear out the liches in the castle courtyard, but I did have a Ring of Levitation. I used it to attack from the rear, killing the enemies whose bodies and equipment I wanted to save, but leading others (like liches and rust monsters) into the trap doors. It worked like a charm.

Adios, jackass.

When I got my hands on the Wand of Wishing, it turned out to have two charges. I used them for an Amulet of Reflection and a Cloak of Magic Resistance. Then I recharged the wand with my scroll and wished for Speed Boots and 3 Blessed Scrolls of Genocide. The latter was a bit of a risk, but I got them all.

I thought I was ready to head into the depths at this point, but I decided to explore the level below the castle to see if I could get some final potions, scrolls, and what have you. The moment I arrived, I put on my blindfold and saw all the liches and rust monsters I'd just finished flushing down the trap.

Rather than waste time thinking about it, I genocided both classes. I still had one blessed Scroll of Genocide left.

After exploring the level, I used a cursed Scroll of Teleportation to level-teleport myself down to Level 50, where I'd found the Wizard of Yendor the last time. When I checked my telepathy, it appeared to be the same layout as the previous journey, with a little chamber in the middle of the level surrounded by a moat, but instead of the Wizard of Yendor, a demon called Demogorgon was there.

I was confused, but I thought maybe this version occasionally replaced the Wizard with a demon. I hacked my way into the chamber and soon found myself on the verge of death. Despite my magic resistance and reflection, Demogorgon was capable of causing deathly illness. My teleportitis saved me, by whisking me away from him, but to cure the sickness that was only a few moves from killing me, I had to waste one of the Potions of Holy Water I'd been saving to bless or uncurse things.

I tried to genocide demons, but I was told that wasn't possible. The game still forced me to use the scroll, so I chose to apply it to vampires instead.

At last!

While Demogorgon blundered around looking for me, I sneaked into the chamber and found the "Amulet of Yendor" in the middle. I was psyched. I finally had my hands on it! But something about the process bugged me, so I Googled around until I found some information specific to this version, and I discovered what you probably already know: it was a fake. This version has several levels with chambers near-identical to the Wizard of Yendor's, but with demons inside instead of the Wizard. The Wizard doesn't automatically appear on Level 50. It was just a coincidence last time.

So, no problem. I started exploring until I found the stairs, and began working my way up the levels. On each new level, I put on my blindfold, and if I saw a demon in the center instead of the Wizard...

The demon is the ampersand. Note that there's no vampire with him because I genocided them.

...I kept moving on without bothering the demon.

Always nice to find the up staircase on these lower levels.

Some things happened while I was moving upward that probably made my later ascension possible. First, I got the invisibility intrinsic from an invisible stalker and the shock resistance intrinsic from a gelatinous cube. This freed up that ring hand for a Ring of Protection. More important, I found another Wand of Wishing. Stupidly, I didn't use my first wish for a Scroll of Charging to ensure I got at least three wishes out of it, but it did have two. I received a Wand of Death and two more blessed Scrolls of Genocide. I later ended up somewhat wasting the scrolls on puddings and umber hulks, but the wand was vital.

The Wizard of Yendor finally appeared on Level 41. I carved my way into his chamber and immediately blasted him with the Wand of Death, killing him in one hit. At last, I had killed the Wizard, and I had my hands on the real Amulet of Yendor!

I soon found some of the "features" of possessing the Amulet of Yendor. Level teleporting no longer works, but balancing that, the Amulet occasionally lets you see parts of the level you haven't explored, making it easier to find the stairs. Most important--and worst--the Wizard comes back to life and dogs you all the way to the surface, alternately attacking you and cursing your stuff from afar. I soon began to realize that my stuff was getting cursed. My unicorn horn started stunning me instead of curing blindness and confusion (it was during one of these episodes that I decided to genocide umber hulks to avoid any more confusion). I could no longer put my sword down. My food turned rotten. It sucked a bit.

The Wizard appeared in person a few times, but I just used the Wand of Death to blast him out of existence again. This worked until it ran out of charges on an upper level. Even then, I didn't have much trouble killing him with my sword, though he had an annoying way of jumping around and summoning allies.

In the high 30s, I found myself in the tower of Vlad the Impaler. It was a needless detour. I discovered that I couldn't climb higher than Level 38 from within the tower, so I had to go back down to 40 and find another staircase. Vlad himself was embarrassingly easy to kill. His chambers held all kinds of treasure chests, but I didn't have a lockpick or any extra weapons to risk forcing the chests.

Vlad's chambers.

Once I got to Level 30, though, I'd already explored and mapped them, and I knew where the stairs were. I think in later editions of the game, you "forget" the upper levels after you get the Amulet, but not this one. Moving up from that point was a breeze, especially with my teleportitis kicking in now and then. I stopped at a lawful altar on the way up, got some holy water, and uncursed my sword, but for the most part I made a beeline for the exit. (Would anything have happened if I'd offered the Amulet in sacrifice on this altar?)

The Wizard appeared again on Level 1, just at the stairs, but I decided to climb out rather than fight him.

I knew that this game wasn't like Rogue, where it ends the moment you climb the Level 1 staircase, but part of me still hoped. Instead, I found myself on a level tagged "EndLevel" with a host of nasty creatures--dragons, trolls, ogre lords, giants, nagas, and lots of others--in between me and the end.

The thing was, by now, with my hit points over 100, armor class at -15, and what turned out to be a +4 longsword, none of these creatures was particularly intimidating. I'd already genocided the tough ones. My invisibility kept them from all rushing me at once, so I could dance around and take them on individually. In fact, the only thing I really worried about was the Wizard of Yendor showing up and either killing me or cursing my stuff. I had to kill him twice on the level before the end, and he had me down to 6 hit points at one place.

I also had to be careful not to do what Jo'Ash did and fall into the moat. These sea monsters have a way of suddenly moving while you're attacking them, and if you're not paying attention, you'll "attack" an empty square and end up moving into the water.

The last real "battle" of the game was with a room full of ogre lords, which is a really pathetic monster at this point, although I suspect there would have been a room of liches if I hadn't genocided them all.

Ogres? Please.

The end of the level presents you with three altars (I assume; I never made it down to the chaotic one), and you have to offer the Amulet on the one that matches your alignment. (What happens if you offer it on a contrary one?) Once I identified the right altar...

And killed the succubus next to it...

I stood atop it and "offered" the Amulet to Solonor Thelandira. This was the end game text:

An invisible choir sings, and you are bathed in radiance. "Congratulations, mortal! In return for thy service, I grant thee the gift of Immortality!" You ascend to the status of Demigod.

The game gave me a look of my equipment and intrinsics, and then it was all over.

So...wow, right? I was so excited that I called Irene at work to tell her. Her reaction was...not satisfying...so I leave it to you.

Looking back at my NetHack career, I can identify six mistakes I made that needlessly prolonged my ascension:

1. I had been playing with a Rogue mentality, always feeling that I needed to drive forward. If I found a shop on Level 3 but didn't have enough gold to buy all the stuff I wanted, I never came back. I used altars for anything I had at the time, but left them behind in my relentless drive downward. Only in the last couple months did I come to realize that until I reached the castle level, the entire dungeon from Level 1 to Level 28 was my playground, and nothing said I couldn't go back and forth as my heart desired, killing respawning enemies, finding loot, and making use of shops and altars throughout the game.

2. I prioritized the wrong stuff. I was in the usual CRPG mold, always worrying about the best weapon and such. As far as I'm concerned, the most important things in NetHack are 1) a blindfold and telepathy; and 2) a Ring of Teleport Control and teleportitis. With these items and abilities, you can evade and escape any monster.

3. I was always expecting to die. I succumbed to my fears and expectations of roguelikes, and every time I entered a dungeon, I was poised to record my level and method of death. I didn't believe that every character could ascend. This perversely made me almost impatient to die with certain characters. I'd avoid really thinking about my situation and finding creative ways out of death because I assumed if my character wasn't skilled enough to pummel the red dragon to death, he'd just die somewhere else anyway.

4. I tried to kill everything. Again, I was playing with a normal CRPG mentality. I didn't yet realize that discretion is the better part of valor. No reason to run around trying to slay every last leprechaun, or to engage nymphs that aren't actively seeking to kill you.

5. I waited too long to cave and look at spoilers. If I hadn't looked at spoilers, this posting would have been about Gideon dying at the hands of Demogorgon or something. Spoilers were vital in telling me what to eat, how to test for various types of unidentified equipment and conditions, how to effectively wish, how to use the altars, and so forth. It would have taken me four times as long or more if I tried to figure it all out on my own. For regular CRPGs, I'm still very anti-spoiler, but I recognize the wisdom of capitulating on this one.

6. I wasn't patient enough. My rule towards the end of the game--especially on the last level--was a full breath in between every move. No matter how many times I said it to myself, I had trouble internalizing that this is not a game where you can just go charging down corridors.

I didn't make any of these mistakes with Gideon, in particular the last one. In real life, three days passed from the time I found the Amulet of Yendor to my ascension. I forced myself to play very slowly and carefully, and only for about 30 minutes at a time, lest I get impatient and do something stupid.

The name "Gideon" now has a special place in my world. Gideon the Demigod. He'll be my default character from now on.

That I finally ascended this week is not a coincidence. When I first posted about this version of NetHack last year,  I set a goal to ascend within a year, and I've made that goal with 13 days to spare. It's only because I saw this deadline coming that I've invested so much time in NetHack over the past three weeks. Ironically, I was only recently making fun of someone for simply "deciding" to put in the time and ascend. I suggested that the randomness of the game would naturally thwart such plans. It's amazing how much of a difference a few weeks makes in one's perspective.

Looks like I have two GIMLETs to do now!