NetHack [3.1]: Quest for Glory

 

Returning home for the elf quest.

         

This NetHack session saw me go back to the Gnomish Mines, all the way to the bottom, then back up and down the regular shaft to dungeon Level 18, then back up to to Level 8, then to my "home," then down to Level 5 of a special dungeon where I had a quest for the elves. It took about 6 hours. The total time I have with this character is approaching 10 hours, which is longer than it took me to win the previous versions of Hack and NetHack, which is making me rethink my overall approach to the game.

         

For now, Abastunagi the Elf is relatively blessed. I don't know whether this version is just a little easier than others, or whether I've just been lucky, but I wasn't seriously challenged by any enemy during this entire session. Only twice did my hit points dip below half of maximum, and both times I was being a bit careless. Once, I was fighting a blue jelly in melee range, forgetting that it has a massive cold-based attack. The second time, I got trapped in an energy vortex and came quite close to dying before a final attack against its walls killed it. I think I was down to 4 hit points. My Ring of Regeneration had me back up to full power within a few moves, though. That thing is definitely worth the extra food it consumes.

     

Otherwise, this session was mostly good news, with these things happening in roughly this order:

1. When I was heading back down the Gnomish Mines, I got attacked by a tengu on Level 7. Tengu, as I remember from previous games, can inflict Teleportitis when you eat their corpses. This disease causes you to teleport at random moments, which is a liability unless you also have Teleport Control, at which point it becomes a huge asset. You can jump across maps, escape from enemies, and access blocked locations. Since I was carrying a Ring of Teleport Control, I decided to go for it. I ate the corpse. "You feel in control of yourself," the game said. Apparently, tengu corpses can give you Teleport Control as well as Teleportitis. I had just gained the former, making the ring superfluous, but otherwise doing nothing for me until I gained Teleportitis.

     

What do I have to eat in real life to feel in control of myself?

     

2. At the town in the Gnomish Mines, I put my stack of Potions of Water on the altar, prayed, and got Potions of Holy Water. I had five of them at the time. I used them to bless other items and make copies of themselves. I also sacrificed several enemies on the altar but never got anything but hopeful feelings and four-leaf clovers. I spent most of this session with my +1 blessed very rusty elven shortsword as the primary weapon.

      

Yeah, I hope you'll give me a damned artifact.

      

3. I went back to Level 13 of the Gnomish Mines and searched it exhaustively based on intelligence that there were artifacts to find there. All I found were a Wand of Digging and a lamp. I wonder if the guaranteed artifacts aren't something from a later version.

 

4. The blue jelly encounter occurred on dungeon Level 8. After I backed off, regenerated, and killed it with darts, I ate its corpse. "You feel full of hot air," the game said, indicating that I'd gotten the "Resist Cold" intrinsic.

     

Check another one off the list.

     

5. Dungeon Level 16 was the famous Rogue level. Its graphics are meant to look like the ur-roguelike that NetHack is based on. Late in the level, I killed the ghost of Michael Toy, one of the creators of Rogue.

      

It's a fun homage, but it doesn't look notably "more primitive" than the typical NetHack level.

    

6. On Level 17, I found a room full of killer bees and a killer bee queen. They posed no danger to me. After I wiped them out, I picked up about 10 royal jellies. Not only are they a great source of food, every time you eat one, your strength goes up a bit. I'm already at 18, so all my increases are just nudging me incrementally toward 19.

7. Also on Level 17, I met a leprechaun. I killed him with a blast of a Wand of Cold before he could steal any of my gold. Then I ate his corpse. "You feel very jumpy," the game said. I had acquired Teleportitis. From this moment, I could deliberately jump anywhere on a level with CTRL-T or just wait for it to activate organically. (It subtracts from your "power," so you can't use it indefinitely.) It frankly feels almost too powerful.

     

It's admittedly kind of annoying when I don't want to teleport, but then I just specify my current position.

       

8. I didn't note where I got each one, but by the end of this session, I had the following spells: "Magic Missile," "Knock," "Remove Curse," "Create Monster," "Restore Ability," "Cure Blindness," "Slow Monster," and "Detect Food." I really would like to get "Identify" as a spell.

     

9. Late in the session, I grabbed a random long sword to replace my rusty elven shortsword. I pumped a few Scrolls of Enchant Weapon into it and got it up to +3. 

10. At some point, I identified a pair of boots that I'd grabbed god-knows-where, and they turned out to be a blessed pair of Speed Boots. When I put them on, I finally got rid of the last rusty item from the last session.

       

This entire time, I had been stuck on character Level 12. I had been carrying a Potion of Gain Level most of this session, but I didn't want to quaff it until I hit Level 13 organically. On Level 18 of the dungeon, though, I met my first wraith, killed it, and ate its corpse for an immediate jump to Level 13. At that point, I quaffed the potion and went directly to Level 14.

        

Not for the first time, I admire a character with the willpower to actually eat some of these corpses.

      

These level increases promoted me to "Arandur," so I hiked all the way back up to Level 8 and the portal to "Home 1." There, I returned to Earendil and finally got the quest.

   

In a full text screen, Earendil explained that a Uruk-hai Overlord has recently conquered the goblin tribes in the area, and the Goblin King currently serves as the overlord's puppet. Their raids against the elves have become more effective; on a recent one, they managed to steal the Palantir of Westernesse. ("Palantir" is, of course, named after the American software company that provides data services to intelligence organizations; "Westernesse" is just gibberish.) Earendil wanted me to go into the Goblins' Cave and retrieve it before the Goblin King could deliver it to the Uruk-hai Overlord. The entrance to the cave opened right there in the elves' circle.

        

Why don't I just go kill this Uruk-hai Overlord?

        

It was a pretty easy quest. The caves were five levels down, full of different types of orcs, ogres, uruk-hai, goblins, bugbears, and similar creatures, none of which remotely pose any sort of threat to me. I mowed through them, picking up a few useful items on the way, probably missing many others (orcs carry a ton of stuff). The Goblin King's castle was on Level 5. I arrived in a room west of a central room. My telepathy sensed monsters in a pattern that suggested that the central room was surrounded by rings of corridors, but I didn't get to experience those.

   

As I pushed my way towards the central throne room, the orcs killing each other in their attempts to hit me with various missile weapons, the Goblin King somehow ended up on the other side of me, between me and the stairs I'd come down. I hit him a few times, and he fled up the stairs. I followed him and didn't see him on the earlier level. I put on my blindfold, and he was already all the way across the dungeon next to the stairs up to Level 3. I teleported myself over there and blocked the stairs, then killed him. His corpse had the Palantir--which weighed me down significantly for the rest of my time in the caves--and a silver bell.

    

Fighting a line of orcs while the Goblin King somehow appeared behind me.

     

As he died, the Goblin King said, "You have defeated me, Arandur! But I curse you one final time, with my dying breath! You shall die before you leave my castle!" Since I had already left his castle, that threat was a little empty. I itched to go back and finish exploring the castle, but the game said: "You must now return [the Palantir] to Earendil without delay--their lives depend on your speed." I decided that messing around in the caves while overburdened and going back to a place where the king specifically said he'd planted a curse to kill me was one of those stupid decisions that veteran NetHack players don't make.

   

When I returned to the surface, Earendil expressed surprise that I survived. He told me to take the Palantir with me. I groaned, thinking of all the equipment I'd have to drop to accommodate its weight, but somehow it became lighter after the end of the quest. Also, at some point, the silver bell turned into a Bell of Opening.

      

My aura proclaims it, and the fact that I'm holding it here in my hands also proclaims it.

     

I tried using the Palantir a couple of times after getting it. It says, "You may look for an object or monster symbol" and prompts you to input a value. You can only type a single character. I've tried a few things, but it just says that the result is "unclear."

   

At this point, I ran into a problem: I can't figure out how to get back to the dungeon from the elf circle. The first time I visited, Earendil tossed me back automatically when I wasn't a high enough level, but he doesn't send me back automatically now. I know that I arrived on the western part of the map, but there doesn't seem to be any teleporter there. So I saved here to ask for help. I'm sure I'm overlooking something obvious.

       

How do I get out of here?

       

Other than the last bit above, things I don't understand:

    

• Occasionally, a monster is roaming around. If I move to attack it, the game will ask, "Really attack the (whatever)?" I always say no in these cases. I think it's because those monsters are the same alignment as I am, but sometimes I'll find other versions of the same creature that are hostile. Can monsters have individual alignments? 

• Is there anything worth doing with non-aligned altars? I found one on Level 14, but I didn't know if it would be worth messing with it.

• I have over 6,000 gold pieces and I haven't seen a shop since the early levels. Is there any benefit to picking up gold at this point in the game? I feel like there was a way to sacrifice it at an altar in a previous version, but I couldn't figure out how to do it here.

• I realized during this session that earlier versions of NetHack showed your experience, not just your current level. Is that a setting I'm missing?

• What do other players do when chasing the Goblin King? Can he actually get away?

     

Finally, because it doesn't come through in the narrative above, I thought I'd cover all the things I do on a regular basis to keep myself alive. I learned all these strategies the hard way from previous games of NetHack:

    

• I frequently don and remove my blindfold so that I can use my ESP to see what monsters are in the area. I do it every time I arrive on a level and just about every time I enter a corridor. 

• I identify each enemy I'm not sure about to remind myself of their strengths and weaknesses. 

     

Checking things out on the killer bee level.

        

• I force myself to take a beat between movements, scanning the area and my hit point total.

• I mostly don't try unidentified scrolls and potions, at least not now that I'm so far into the game.

• I shoot enemies at range when I can. I haven't found a good permanent missile weapon, so the specific items that I used for ranged attacks come and go frequently depending on my encumbrance. There are times that I get down to darts or wands.

• I engrave ELBERETH on the floor when I'm particularly afraid of an enemy, though that didn't come up during this session.

      

Still, I realize that there are entire parts of the game for which I have no idea what I'm doing. I abandoned my pet on Level 1, for instance, and I know there's a whole science to leveling pets, using pets in combat, getting pets to help you test things, and probably lots of other stuff. I have also never seriously tried to use the game's self-polymorph mechanic, which lets you turn into a variety of monsters and use their strengths and weaknesses, including (I think) eating magic rings to gain intrinsics.

     

But the real gap in my knowledge is what happens next. In previous versions of NetHack, what I would do now is go to Level 30, the castle level, find the Wand of Wishing, finish my ascension kit, and then enter Hell looking for the Wizard of Yendor. Once I found him, I would kill him, claim the Amulet of Yendor, and make my way back to the surface. I thought that was complicated enough, but I guess this version makes it even more complicated, but I don't know the specific steps. I'll consider looking at spoilers at some point. In the meantime, my question is: what else do I need before I hit the lower levels? What items or intrinsics would you not move on without?

      

Finally, I have to tell you that when I finished this session, I backed up the game files. Partly this is to prevent me from losing the character by doing something idiotic, which I nearly did while writing this entry. I fired up the game to remind myself about some inventory items and then, having answered my questions, nearly killed the emulator without saving the game. Since the game deletes your character file when you start up, that would have been the end of my character.

    

But there's another reason, too: I'm not sure that I can go with my original plan to field 10 characters while adhering to permadeath. This is only Character #3 (I said I wouldn't count quick deaths on the early levels), and I've already got 16 hours into the game. I think it would make more sense to back up Abastunagi periodically (my standard with other versions was every two dungeon levels), try my best not to need them, but to otherwise win the game by using those backups first, then try it again with a couple more characters, adhering to permadeath on subsequent runs.

    

I'll give it some thought and I'm happy to take opinions. I really enjoy NetHack, but I can't have it stopping all progress through 1993.

   

Time so far: 17 hours