NetHack: Difference between revisions

'''NetHack is complex.''' It can take years of play to see it all, and more still is being added.

'''''NetHack''''' has been described as a puzzle game hiding inside a roguelike's skin. Whereas the archetypal ''[[Angband]]'' or ''[[Dungeon Crawl]]'' hero is a knight in shining armour who slays countless evil creatures and becomes powerful like unto God, the archetypal NetHack hero is a cunning trickster (or... ''hacker'') who sets traps, fights in unconventional ways and never, ever plays fair. After the very first few levels, [[Level Grinding|killing monsters for XP]] becomes unprofitable (or even disadvantageous). Instead, power comes from your ever expanding collection of items which can be wielded, worn, thrown, rubbed, dipped, engraved, snapped, pointed, combined, cast, eaten, or applied, - singularly or [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|in combination]]. The advantage of a focus on items is that it reduces the impact of luck: By carefully hoarding your resources, (almost) nothing is inescapably fatal. The downside of a focus on items is that it reduces the impact of luck: Once you've learned some effective tactics, multiple play-throughs can start to feel similar, or even repetitive.

You can find [[The Wiki Rule|the main wiki]] [https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page here]; the old Usenet group (which is now a part of Google Groups) is located [https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.roguelike.nethack here] for your perusal, with a mirror located at [https://bilious.alt.org/rgrn/ the BiliousNetHack Patch DatabseDatabase] on bilious.alt.org.<!--currently down while paxed is moving things around--> A dedicated NetHack [[Reddit]] can be found [https://www.reddit.com/r/nethack/ here], and [[IRC]] chatrooms for discussing the game itself can be found on freenodeLibera.chat at #nethack and #hardfought among others. A scoreboard for tracking playthroughs can be found [https://nethackscoreboard.org/ here] on its own dedicated site.

Naturally, the NetHack General Public License means that there are multiple [[:Category:NetHack variants|variants]] (the community term for [[Game Mod|forks and mods]]) of the game, each with their own relatively unique flavoring, such as [[SLASH'EM]]; some branches, such as [[SporkHack]] and [[UnNetHack]],. Some such variants arose in response to the belief that work on the official game had ceased as result of its post-3.4.3 [[Development Hell]] - many are still actively developed alongside the main game, and even borrow updates and changes made there as well. One highly recommended variant on the original game is [http://nethackwiki.com/wiki/DynaHack DynaHack], which not only adds new content, but also includes an in-game tutorial and a friendlier user interface, which makes it perfect for beginners.

As stated above (and quoted by Christopher Wellons in [https://nullprogram.com/blog/2008/09/17/ his blog post "Play NetHack"] on nullprogram.com), NetHack's rather archaic graphicsASCII beliebelies the amount of gameplay depth it truly holds. That said, if ASCII intimidates you or you simply have a different preference, you can always try [https://web.archive.org/web/20100912021936/http://www.darkarts.co.za/vulture Vulture], an isometric GUI that more or less takes the original and spits out detailed graphics, sounds, and all around allows for an easier experience when learning how to play. The official site is down, but [https://github.com/dembobbys/vultures there] [https://github.com/HackTechDev/Vulture4Nethack are] [https://github.com/DanielT/Vulture forks]; Vulture has builds for vanilla NetHack, SLASH'EM and UnNethack. Additionally, the NetHack Wiki has a list of other [http://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Tileset alternate graphical tilesets].

** The [[Weapon of X-Slaying|undead-purging]] Sunsword didn't work as expected against shades, who are immune to all weapons that aren't blessed or silver. A player normally wouldn't run into shades until Gehennom, at which point they have fareven more viable weapons. Someone actually took the time to figure that out - and [https://github.com/NetHack/NetHack/commit/174182f0e as of version 3.6.0], it's been fixed.

** Least downplayed in the End Game. {{spoiler|The [[Elemental Plane]]s can only be entered with the real Amulet of Yendor, and a means of portal detection outside of the Amulet is highly recommended. The Plane of Earth requires you to dig your way to the portal, with implements helpfully provided by the first few enemies you encounter - including [[Resurrective Immortality|a guaranteed reappearance from the Wizard of Yendor]], who helpfully carries a spellbook of dig should you need it. The Plane of Air requires a method of flight or levitation if you plan to move with any amount of reliability, while. theThe Plane of Fire doesn't require much to traverse, but becomes much more bearable with fire and poison resistance, and ways to avoid game-ending dips in lava can only ever help. Finally, the Plane of Water forces you to stay inside the giant air bubbles that float through it - unless you have a means of magical breathing, you'll drown if you end up outside one.}}

* [[Acronym and Abbreviation Overload]]: The IRC channel for NetHack often combines this with the in-game symbols used to represent the various items; so a late game ascension kit might contain (among other things) [oMR, "oLS, a cursed !oGL and plenty of /oD. <ref>Translation;: Armorarmor of Magicmagic Resistanceresistance (usually specifically the Cloakcloak by context; the other typical source, gr(a|e)y dragon scale mail, is reduced to GDSM. Not to be confused with ''green'' dragon scale mail, which would also be GDSMamulet of course,life but is little used outside of certain conducts)saving, Amuletpotion of Lifegain Saving, Potion of Gain Levellevel (cursed makes it literal; you physically move one level upward in the dungeon), and Wand of Death, the [[Wave Motion Gun]]wands of NetHackdeath.</ref>

* [[Action Bomb]]: The sphere class (<code>e</code>) consists mostly of these type of [[Mooks]]. Gas spores explode upon dying normally, which can easily kill low-level players, and spheres attack by exploding directionallytheir energies directly at the player character. <!--3.7 changes this to an area-of-effect explosion.--> Lights are a class of monster (<code>y</code>) that can also explode at the player to impair their sight.

* [[All There in the Manual]]: The in-game guide is a remarkable collection of quotes and information, not all of which is entirely accurate in describing game mechanics. There is also an encyclopedia that can be used to look up interesting quotes associated with certain monsters. Local installations of NetHack also provide you with a handy more-accurate guidebook in PDF and .txt form, which is also accessible from ''NetHack''{{'}}s official site.

* [[All There in the Script]]: NetHack is onea ofprominent the earliest examplesexample of a game's code being available for examination, whichthat enables (if not encourages) "source diving" to get answers to questions about the deepest workings of the game; this began when the earliest versions of Hack were published, with [https://www.nethack.org/download/LICENSE_HISTORY.html the BSD-style licensing] allowing for distribution.

** {{spoiler|The phrase "Who do you think you are, War?" may occur if you chat with one of the Riders (9/10 chance with Death) or else look in a mirror while on the Astral Plane - it can read as either [[Tomato in the Mirror|calling you War]], or else as a [[Pretender Diss]]. A source code comment and some other dialogue clarifies that it's the former.}}

** No, the spell "[[Turn Undead]]" doesn't actually turn ''you'' undead. {{spoiler|It does, however, turn most corpses "un-dead" by reviving them.}}.

** The Rogue quest nemesis known as the Master Assassin, especially compared to the quest levels before him. The most difficult part of defeating the Master Assassin is actually reaching him: {{spoiler|The goal level where the Master Assassin resides has a set of undiggable walls. The player must either phase through or find a way to get his attention and have him warp to them.}} Like Lord Surtur, he is easy to actually bring down in combat, especially with a storm of daggers.

** Prior to 3.6.1, Vlad was so anti-climatic that it had become a [[Running Gag]] to [[Cherry Tapping|Cherry Tap]] him to death with -3 throughly corroded orcish daggers, thrown scrolls, and other such things,; andmany would even name the object(s) in question "VladbaneVladsbane".

** The #tip extended command was introduced in 3.6.0 and allows players to empty out the contents of a container onto the floor - its primary purpose wasis to provide a means for playerplayers wielding [[Stuck Items|a cursed two-handed weapon]] to still access stashed items within a container in spite of lacking a free hand to open it.

** Seven candles are needed towards the late stages of the game in order to {{spoiler|light the Candelabrum of Invocation}}, but there are very few guaranteed sources of candles outside Izchak's shop in Minetown, and even then he may not stock enough of them (whether due to bad luck or bones). As of 3.6.0, the top level of Vlad's Tower now contains two stacks of 4-8 candles, and isas the level was already ineligible for bones, meaning that there will always be enough candles.

** The cancellation effect can rob most monsters of their magic and some other special abilities; when zapped at objects, andit turns some items into their mundane equivalents while removing enchantments (including blessings or curses) from others.

* [[Artifact Title]]: Most people nowadays probably won't know ''NetHack'' is an open source port of ''Hack'' developed on the then-new ''Internet'' unless you ask, to the point that newbie hackers on IRC have constantly mistaken the #nethack channel for an actual hacking forum for years! To quote the topic from #nethack on FreenodeLibera:

* [[Asteroids Monster]]: Puddings divide into two half-HP clones when hit with iron weapons. Gremlins take a cue from [[Gremlins|the 80s movie franchise]], dividing into two half-HP clones upon contact with water. [[Goddamn Bats|They will also seek out water to multiply themselves with.]]

* [[Attack Reflector]]: Granted via shield, amulet, or silver dragon scales/scale mail, and able to protectprotects you and your inventory from the effects of magical rays while deflecting them back in the opposite direction.

* [[Auto Revive]]: {{spoiler|The amulet of life saving. "[[Game Over|You die...]] But wait... Your medallion begins to glow! You feel much better! Your medallion crumbles to dust."}} It doesn't do much to remove what lead to your death, though... and if {{spoiler|you genocide yourself or have your brain eaten by a mind flayer}} you're done for good.

* [[Baleful Polymorph]]:* Stepping on polymorph traps will change yours or a monster'syour form instantly unless theyyou have magic resistance or a means of polymorph control - this also applies to monsters, and theanyone that steps on victimone is very likely to drop or tear through some of their armor in the process. Polymorph rings cause "polymorphitis" (i.e. changing forms at random), and are often generated cursed so as to [[Schmuck Bait|inflict this on unsuspecting wearers]]. Wands of polymorph can inflict this on enemies (and can be zapped at yourself). Polymorph- polymorph control can subvert the "baleful" part, thankfully.

** Shapeshifter corpses will also cause whoever eats them to polymorph - be careful leaving them around valuable meat-eating pets!<!--3.7.0 changes subvert this, as they will no longer do so unless starving or on the verge of going feral.

** Monkeys canwill attempt to steal from you while attacking, though they may fail and give up; upon a successful theft, they will immediately attempttry to flee with it for a while.

** "Covetous" monsters can steal certain important items from you, such as quest artifacts.

* [[Bare-Fisted Monk]]: Despite not being able to effectively use weapons, monk charactersMonks can become extremely powerful and deadly. Various other roles can also train their bare-handed fighting skills (or martial arts for monks and samurai), and the weaponless conduct centers around fighting without wieldingthe use of a traditional weaponswielded weapon.

* [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]]: Most of [[Fan Nickname|Team a]] and <code>s</code> monster classes are composed of unreasonably large multlimulti-legged insects and arachnids. Ants, bees, beetles, spiders, you name it!

* [[Block Puzzle]]: [[Sokoban]], a four-level puzzle branch based on the game of the same name in which you push boulders to plug holes in the floor. The game mechanics changeare somewhat, thoughdifferent: You can't push the boulders diagonally or fly over the holes in the floor, and destroyingit is possible to destroy the boulders (or creatingcreate more) netsat youthe cost of a Luck penalty.

** {{spoiler|[[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|And if you're being digested by a monster at the time, then the lightning will hit the monster you're inside of, almost certainly killing it instead of you. If the monster survives the bolt, it gets hit by the disintegration beam too (although the only monster in Vanilla that engulfs and resists lightning also resists disintegration). You even get experience and break any pacifist conduct for doing so.]]}}

* [[Boss in Mook Clothing]]:* ''Liches.'' They can curse your items and lower your strength, their cold touch can destroy potions in your open inventory, and the stronger ones can teleport after you and even use a [[Touch of Death]]! {{spoiler|And they're eligible forms for chameleons, likely the earliest shapeshifters you'll run into.}}

** Archons, titans and ki-rin are devastatingly powerful foes that appear very rarely in the dungeon. On average (i.e., barring shapeshifter shenanigans) you'll only ever see them late in the game, at which point you'll understand just why that is - they're [[Enemy Summoner|nasty summoners]], can curse your inventory and even death-touch you in some cases, and each has their own ability that can cause you no end of trouble, be it the archon's dazzling gaze, the kirin and archon's ability to fly, or the titan's [[Super Strength]].

* [[Bottomless Bladder]]: The PC isn't required to sleep, and recovers from wounds without having to rest. In fact, the only source of restful sleep is delivered by [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|an amulet of restful sleep]], which ''can'' be used to heal in theory, but is mostly just there as [[Everything Trying to Kill You|a hazard]].

* [[Breakable Weapons]]: A variant - you cannot break melee weapons through fighting with them, but using bladed weapons to force locks can break them. Missile weapons such as darts, arrows, and slung rocks have a chance of breaking when thrown. Katana wielded by samurai and two-handed weapons have a 5% chance of shattering an enemy's wielded weapon and causing them to flee.

* [[Cheap Gold Coins]]: A fortune cookie costs 7 gold ''zorkmids'', a food ration costs 45 zorkmids, and artifact weapons cost a few thousand zorkmids. Back-calculation from the weight system suggests that a zorkmid weighs about 40 grams, or about one and a quarter troy ounces. From 2005 to 2015, [[Real Life]] gold has varied between approximately $200 and $2000 per troy ounce, so that's $1,750-$17,500 for the fortune cookie, $11,250-$112,500 for the food ration, and a cool million or ten for something like {{spoiler|Excalibur}}.

* [[Cherry Tapping]]: TypicallyFormerly "Vladsbane",done namedto forVlad onethe bossImpaler that- waspre-3.6.1, formerlyhe was [[Anticlimax Boss|so wimpy]], that he could be dispatched with a rusted tin opener or thrown magic marker (aptly named "Vladsbane"). Pudding farming pre-3.6.0 invoked this as well, with the farming player deliberately using an iron weapon that inflicts minimal damage to the pudding while still dividing it - this "Puddingbane" allows them to maximize the number of puddings created, and then subsequently killed with an actual weapon, for their death drops and corpses (which can be eaten for intrinsics or sacrificed on an altar).

* [[Color -Coded for Your Convenience]]: Unicorns are color-coded by alignment (black/chaotic, grey/neutral, white/lawful). Many other monsters, particularly [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons|dragons]], are coded by properties: monsters with fire attacks (pyrolisks, hell hounds, red dragons) are usually red, monsters with cold attacks (blue jellies, winter wolves, white dragons) are usually blue or white, etc.

* [[Commonplace Rare]]: Two of the most useful items in the game are... the [[Punny Name|magic marker]] and the can of grease. Both are disgustingly uncommon.<ref>The ''most'' useful rare item in the game is easily a wand of wishing. Which you will then use to [[Mundane Utility|wish for grease and magic markers]].</ref> Grease is mostly valuable ''because'' it is rare—its ability to protect your armor from damage is important, but mostly superseded.<ref>Armor can be made permanently damageproof, and there's a cloak and a bag that are effectively permanently greased. You'll still have to avoid melee with mind flayers.</ref> Magic markers, however, let you write powerful and valuable magic scrolls on junk parchment (andfor area usedcertain upamount inof charges from the process)marker, making them quite desirable.

** Another inexplicably uncommon item: shirts. T-shirts and [[Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist|Hawaiian shirts]] have no armor value in and of themselves, but can be enchanted to give a valuable extra few points of protection. ''If'' you can find one. Wishing- wishing or polymorphing may be necessary.

* [[Contractual Boss Immunity]]: Played with. Most quest nemeses are immune to [[Taken For Granite|stoning]], but otherwise their immunities tend to vary, and many can be felled with [[Boring Yet Practical|poisoned weapons]] or even [[One-Hit Kill|wands of death]]. Taken [[Up to Eleven]] with the Chromatic Dragon, who has resistance to almost every element and form of magic - ''as well as'' reflection!

* [[Damage Discrimination]]: Averted - if you're facing a mob of enemies, anyone between a thrown missile-user andor theria targetwand (up toshot and includingtheir dragons)target stands a chance of getting hit. Also, if you wear a ring of conflict, any nearby creatures will start attacking each other.

** Due to starting skill levels, a Rogue on the very first turn can throw up to 2 daggers at a time. Developing the skill can increase that to up to 4 daggers at a time. Enchanting the daggers (or finding enchanted daggers) and adding damage bonuses from Strength almost guarantees you'll have a long range killer that can tear through the early game by machine-gunning daggers. Rangers can do the same, but have to find the daggers on their own, as well as develop the skill completely from scratchthe base level.

* [[Do Not Drop Your Weapon]]: Averted - you can unequipdisarm monsters with a [[Whip It Good|bullwhip]], though enemies can do the same. Weapons can also be stolen like other items - if Magicbane is your only source of magic resistance, and you're disarmed while somebody with a touch of death is around...

* [[Dummied Out]]: [https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Deferred 'Deferred features'] include the shimmering dragon and vorpal jabberwock, as well as unique characters like [[Cerberus]] and Charon. There was also planned to be an artifact attack that fired magic missiles (similar to Fire and Frost Brand's planned secondary effects) and spellbooks that could summon spheres. Many of these features areand usedmonsters appear in ''NetHack'' variants.

* [[Dunce Cap]]: Appears as an item that [[Stuck Items|immediately autocurses and sticks to your head]] if you put it on, and fixes your intelligence and wisdom stats to 6. It also shares an appearance with the [[Robe and Wizard Hat|cornuthaum]], which is only useful to wizardsWizards - making it pure (and apt) [[Schmuck Bait]].

* [[Dungeon Bypass]]: Pick-axes can be used to tunnel around enemies and dig a hole through the floor of one dungeon level down to thea nextlower one, letting you bypass entire levels at a time (although you will have to deal with the bypassed levels on the way back up—unless you've got another cunning plan). Wands of digging can do the job much faster, but have limited charges.

* [[Elemental Embodiment]]: Earth, fire, air and water elementals show up as dungeon inhabitants and enemies; they can also be summoned by other means, much to the chagrin of anyone messing around with sinks, neutral altars or fountains. {{spoiler|Naturally, strongerthey versionscannot be genocided, and appear at near-maximum level all over their respective [[Elemental Plane]]s.}}

* [[Enemy Chatter]]: Hostile monsters will threaten you if you #chat to them; hostile demons, angels and priests will utter maledictions ([[Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor|or just straight-up painful quips]]) duringwhile battlemoving around. Your quest nemesis will also greet you with specific dialogue and continue to boast as you fight them.

** Certain [[Weapon of X-Slaying]] artifact)artifacts guard you against the "X" monsters in question by revealing their location on the level.

* [[Enemy Scan]]: The wand of probing gives you information on any monster(s) standing in the direction you zap it, as well as revealing the contents of their inventory if applicable. Magicbane can also probe enemies as one of its many effects. The stethoscope can also reveal some information about an adjacent monster, though to a lesser extent and without directly revealing their inventory.

** Werecreatures can call monsters within their animal form's class for help, and demons are also capable of "gating" in more of their kind when attacking in melee. {{spoiler|As can you if you catch lycanthropy or attain their forms.}}

** Do ''not'' kill a unicorn of your own alignment, even if chaotic, or you might not live to regret it. {{spoiler|You'll suffer a -5 Luck penalty (plus any additional applicable penalties if they were peaceful). By- by itself, this isn't unsurvivable, but it'll take *quite* a while to make up -for. betterBetter not try any wishes in the meanwhile!}}

* [[Fair Weather Mentor]]: There's no penalty for starving your pets to death or abandoning them on another floor besides the loss of the pet via death or untaming. Thankfully, domestic pets are at least replacablereplaceable - just don't [[Eat the Dog]] unless you ''really'' have to.

** The wand of digging is the fastest means of creating tunnels and holes, and is also a useful escape item, being the quickest way to drop past several floors at once. [[Speedrun]]s use this strategy oftenwhen they have places to be - relying primarily and extensively on it is usually called "digging for victory".

** [[Foe-Tossing Charge]]: The game has many potential instances where the player is surrounded by monsters and only needs to pass through; the easier way to do this (or something resembling this) is zapping a wand of teleport through the horde, or else breaking a spare one in two and teleporting anything within range. In games where the mail option is enabled, the mail demon (no, [[Mailer Daemon|not this kind]], ([[A Worldwide Punomenon|yes, an actual demon]]) will do this if necessary in order to get to the player and deliver their message if necessary. {{spoiler|The [[Four Horsemen|Riders]] can also shove monsters out of the way to get at you on the Astral Plane.}}

* [[Forgot to Feed the Monster]]: While food {{spoiler|(mostly corpses)}} is very common and you usually don't have to actively feed your pet(s), it is possible for them to starve to death. This can annoyingly be reversed if ''you're'' hungry, but your pet gets to corpses and other edible food before you can. Pets that become extremely hungry will be confused and may end up attacking you until the come to their senses. Your pet(s) can also untame or even go feral if you leave them on a different level for too long; in the case of domestic pets, feeding them will re-tame them. This trope is averted for pets that are inediate - they do not need food and thus cannot starve, though tameness mechanics still apply.

* [[Fun with Acronyms]]: The fandom has multiple acronyms just for the act of ''dying'', with varying levels of unfairness implied: YASD ([[Yet Another Stupid Death]]) is in regard to deaths that were your fault, YAAD (Yet Another Annoying Death) is in regards to deaths that were beyond your control i.e. instadeath attacks, DYWYPI (Do You Want Your Possessions Identified?) which is sighed by many a player on the freenodeLibera.ircchat IRC channel after their death, and GwtWOD (The Gnome with the Wand of Death) which is a disappointingly common cause of YAAD.

** The [https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Rec.games.roguelike.nethack_FAQ archived FAQ from the Usenet newsgroup FAQ] is a good source of these and many more such acronyms that are ''still'' in use.

* [[Game Mod]]: The ''NetHack'' General Public License encourages the creation of patches, variants and other similar additions, which the community- [[:Category:NetHack variants|hasthis producedcategory]] contains many of the variants available.]]

* [[Genius Bruiser]]: Players inevitably tend towards this style of play to varying degress as they progress - in ''NetHack'', picking your battles wisely and having creative solutions for disposing of baddies is 7080% of the final grade.

* [["Get Back Here!" Boss]]: Quest nemeses, end-game bosses and other powerful enemies can warp at will, and will use this ability to run off and heal. {{spoiler|Generally speaking, they always warp to the stairs leading to the previous floor, meaning once they start that nonsense, you should be running that way, too... or preempt them by blocking the stairs before facing them.}}

** With work, it's possible to genocide a whole range of ''weaker'' creatures. Overdo- but overdo the blessed scrolls of genocide and all that's left are the very toughestungenocidable creatures, among which arenare some of the very toughest enemies you'tll genocidableface. TheThis makes the final stages of the game become even more exciting, and frequently, much shorter, too.

* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: Oh, angelic monsters such as Archons and ki-rin can be plenty nice most times if you're lawful, - but if they're hostile towards you, ''[[Boss in Mook Clothing|you're in for it]].''

* [[Gratuitous Japanese]]: When playing a samurai, the game feedback will call certain items by their Japanese name (helmet -> ''kabuto'') or a rough Japanese equivalent (booze -> ''sake''), though they're ultimately the same item behind the scenesbesides. The Samurai Quest is particularly full of this.

* [[Grave Humor]]: Many a randomly generated grave (i.e., not created by a player's death) comes with a humorous message. The server run on nethack.alt.org [http://www.alt.org/nethack/addmsgs/viewmsgs.php adds a ton of them.]

* [[Grave Robbing]]: You can dig up graves to find gold and items, though you may also unearth mummies and zombies, and the loot may be cursed as well. Lawful roles, including Samurai and [[Adventurer Archaeologist|Archaeologists]] in particular, suffer alignment penalties if they engage in this.

* [[Guardian Angel]]: {{spoiler|If you have good enough alignment upon entering the Astral Plane and are not [[Let'sSet Youa andMook Himto FightKill a Mook|generating conflict]] uponat enteringany thepoint Astral Planeafter, a tame one will be sent to assist you.}}

** On Friday the 13th, the start-up message says "Watch out! Bad things can happen on Friday the 13th", and your base Luck stat is reduced.

** On a full moon, the start-up message says, "You are lucky! Full moon tonight", and your luckLuck is increased, but dogs may be less friendly, and werecreatures are usually in animal form, especially at night.

* [[Hollywood Acid]]: Averted in that most acid attacks cause relatively lower damage, and corrodecorrodes metal items, instead of instantly dissolving them or their target.

* [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse]]: {{spoiler|Death, Pestilence, and Famine (referred to as The Riders) make an appearance as endbossesoptional end bosses in the Astral Plane. War is ''the player''.}}

* [[I Fought the Law and the Law Won]]: Keystone Kops spawn in large numbers if you [[Shoplift and Die|rob a store]], even by accident. TheyDownplayed in that you ''can'' fight and defeat them, though it may be less tedious or dangerous to just pay up: they are also among the only monsters in the game that can never be rendered permanently extinct;, so no matter how many armies of them you defeat, there'll always be another pack ready to jump you NEXT''next'' time you step outta line. Downplayed in that you ''can'' fight and defeat them, though sometimes it may be less tedious or dangerous to just pay up.

* [[Implacable Man]]: Subverted;. evenEven when you're high level and well-tooled for melee with AC well in the negatives and a ring of regeneration, and you can smite an entire room of trolls and dragons, taking blows and regenerating the damage faster than they can dish it out, you can still get absolutely destroyed without the proper resistances, and in some cases even ''with'' them!

* [[Infinity+1 Sword]]: Grayswandir is a silver saber which deals double damage to ''all'' monsters (instead of just extra damage like other artifacts), plus the usual extra damage to silver-hating monsters. It's widely considered the best artifact in the game, and as a double-damage silver saber is most ideal for carving through Gehennom, to the point that even non-Lawfuls may choose to wish for it in the late game - it's not intelligent and won't evade their grasp, and the "cross-aligned" artifact blast only does 4d4 damage, making it ideal to carve through the demonic forces of Gehennom.

** Ranged attacks that make use of a multi-shot weapon at skilled level or better can kill enemies before they even get withing melee range (typically called [http://nethack.wikianethackwiki.com/wiki/Storm "storm" damage]).

** [[Magic Missile]] in the hands of a Wizard or other sufficiently-powerful caster will make short work of nearly anything without reflection, up to and including the final bosses.

* [[Inventory Management Puzzle]]: For sufficiently advanced and/or paranoid players, most of the difficulty (and/or tedium) will come from this. You can carry a lot of swag with the right items, but eventually you'll have to start stashing; to be as certain as possible of not losing a cache, you can {{spoiler|put it in a pit and push a boulder on top of it}} or {{spoiler|put it in a (preferably locked) chest, on a scroll of scare monster, on a dungeon tile which has "Elbereth" engraved on it. If it's not a permanent Elbereth, peaceful monsters can wander across it and scuff it out. [[Paranoia Fuel|Then the gelatinous cube shows up...]]}}

* [[Invisibility]]: Available through [[Invisibility Cloak|a cloak]] and a ring, as well as intrinsic invisibility conferred by wand (permanent), potion or spell (temporary). Note that it doesn't make you completely undetectable; monsters will try to guess your location and attack where they think you are, and some monsters can see invisible creatures soutrightoutright. All of the above items can also be used by monsters, making the "see invisible" intrinsic important.

* [[Invisible MonsterMonsters]]: In addition to the above being available to monsters, the stalker is a form of elemental that is naturally invisible at all times. Eating one can provide a source of invisibility and the ability to see other invisible beings. {{spoiler|The method its corpse provides you with the latter will also turn you invisible indefinitely, however.}}

** Priests and Wizards have quest branches that can generate a lot of wraiths, whose corpses can be eaten to [[Rare Candy|gain an experience level]].

** The "pudding farming" method allowed you to collect massive amounts of hit points, as well as really good loot, at the cost of [[Victory Is Boring|turning the remainder of the game into a tedious slog]]. Prior to the release of 3.6.0,<ref>This version introduced globs that replaced the corpses of puddings as death drops; they could no longer be sacrificed or farmed for items, and cloned puddings also give much fewer points.</ref> a player joked that the Dev Team didn't need to invent a punishment for pudding farming because there already was one—{{spoiler|[[Ironic Hell|"it's called pudding farming."]]}}

** [[Anti-Grinding]]: Leveling up too much before you find good equipment is a good way to get yourself into trouble, especially against monsters with better AC such as giant ants.

* [[Level Scaling]]: The level of enemies you'll face is based on the average of your character level and the depth you've reached in the dungeon. In theory, this discourages players from diving too deep too fast.

** [[Beef Gate]]: In theory, this discourages players from diving too deep too fast. In practice, however, this is still quite survivable, especially for experienced conduct players. ''NetHack'' as a whole is generally approached as a test of wits as much as it is one of fighting strength.

** A somewhat more benign use of bones involves "stuffing" - creating as many bones as possible on a given level, or else "stuffing" a single bones files with as much ideal loot as possible, all in the hopes of coming across them with another character. Doing this on purpose is still considered bad form, with the exception of specialized [[speedrun]]s.

* [[Mad Oracle]]: Downplayed with the Oracle of Delphi, who is always guaranteed to appear in every game (barring bones shenanigans). She can be paid for consultations, which is one of the main ways an unspoiled player can learn about the game - where the "Mad" aspect comes in is that hersome minorof her consultations, while cheap and always true, are [[Cryptic Conversation|a bit on]] [[Vagueness Is Coming|the obtuse side]]. While on her level, you can also occasionally hear "conclusive ravings".

* [[Magic Pants]]: SubvertedDespite the amount of slots available, there are no ''mention'' of pants in the game whatsoever. If you sit on a cockatrice corpse, however, you don't turn to stone, so you must be wearing pants. Since they don't tear apart or anything, the pants are thus present and magic - [[Exact Words|it's the ''rest'' of your armor that's endangered]] if you changepolymorph. Change into a much larger form, thenand the body armor you're wearing will be torn apart and destroyed. If you; turn into something exceptionally weaksmall, and puny, you'll be half-squashed by the same armor andwhile findfinding it harder (if not impossible) to move.

** Mumakil and baluchitheria. The formermumak is somewhat slow but hard to hit, and possesses a headbutt attack with the highest possible single roll forhit damagedie in the game; the latterbalucitherium is slightly faster and tougher, but has less AC, though it can still do solid amounts of damage.

** The ''[[Sokoban]]'' branch. The [[Mini Game]] uses the same mechanics as the rest of the game, with only minimal changes to the adapted Sokoban mechanics themselves; boulders can't be pushed diagonally as usual, but you also can't fly over the pits and holes in the floor, and certain actions (e.g. making or removing boulders) will incur a Luck penalty.

* [[Mook Bouncer]]: The quantum mechanic has a teleport attack, which is based on its [[Punny Name]] along with many of its other elements, and sends you to a random spot on the same floor. {{spoiler|Angering your quest leader or killing any guardians will get you ejected from that branch, in most cases permanently.}}

** [[Powerup Mount]]: While riding, your movement speed is set to that of your steed, and your carrying capacity is maxed out; polearms can be used more effectively at close range while riding. In addition, flying mounts can carry you over water, and you don't have to worry about falling off one by traveling downstairs while''unless'' you're burdened. However, you cannot eat food (notably corpses) off the ground while riding, and can only pick up items off the ground with at least Basic riding skill. Monster attacks may also fall upon your steed instead of you - better hope a footrice attack doesn't go astray! [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|You also can't enter shops while mounted.]]

* [[Multiple Head Case]]: Ettins are two-headed distant relatives to giants that get two attacks instead of one, and can ignore player stealth a majority of the time. Also the case with {{spoiler|Demogorgon}}.

* [[Mushroom Samba]]: The hallucination effect can be obtained by drinking a certain type of potion, eating the corpses of monsters with stun attacks (including some fungi), and being hit by an exploding (and usually invisible) black light. [[Interface Screw|This causes nearby monsters and items to appear as random other items or monsters that don'tmay not actually even exist, and also gives alternate messages for some other effects.]]

* [[Nerf Arm]]: Cream pies are surprisingly useful as weapons, - ''and'' you can eat them.

* [[Nintendo Hard]]: To the point wherethat there is no shame in dying on the second or third level if you're a new player. One- one can die in less than 50 turns if they don't know what they're doing, and. itIt's not unheard of for players to die [[Press Start to Game Over|on their ''first turn'']], (though that's muchfar more due to extremely bad luck or deliberate actions than a lack of skill).

** Inversely, being seen with a T-Shirtshirt or Hawaiian shirt (or wearing a dunce cap) will cause shopkeepers to hike their rates by at least 1/3 (non-cumulative). Naturally, [[Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist|the Tourist role starts with this]], and are also subjected to this below a certain experience level, though their potential for high Charisma can mitigate this.

<!--3.7 ** Some demon lords and princes enforce [[Teleport Interdiction|no-teleport clauses]] on the entire floor of their currentthe level they're on, which is lifted upon their defeatdeath.-->

* [[Orcus on His Throne]]: Various monsters such as [[King Mook]]s and Croesus can be found "asleep" on thrones in special throne rooms. {{spoiler|Croesus's alarm system will immediately wake him up, however. The [[Trope Namer]] himself appears, but is an exception to the rule - he "meditates" while awaiting you on the down stair of his lair instead, and will spring to action immediately once aware of your presence.}}

* [[Our Dragons Are Different]]: ''NetHack'' dragons are of the quadrupedal variety; they are intelligent and can pick up items, but lack "hands" to actually use them with, and each type has their own breath weapon that they generally use at a distance. They tend to appear in late-dungeon throne rooms, as well as near and within castles, and are "nasties" that can be summoned by enemy spellcasters. Ixoth and the Chromatic Dragon respectively serve as quest bosses for the Knight and Caveman.

* [[Our Giants Are Bigger]]: Giants can't wear bodytorso armor, but can somehow still use other armor and weapons, and their strength lets them carry boulders with ease.

** [[Underground Monkey]]: As a more traditional example, some monsters have elemental variants that are at least resistant to their element's damage (e.g., fire giants and frost giants), and eating their corpse may confer that resistance.

* [[Psycho Electric Eel]]: Watery areas and swamps can generate them, and they're a major hazard that can destroy rings and wands.

* [[Public Domain Artifact]]s: Several of them can appear in the game: [[The Hobbit (novel)|''The Hobbit'' universe's]] Orcrist and Sting, Snickersnee from ''[[The Mikado]]'', [[King Arthur]]'s sword Excalibur, [[Norse Mythology|Thor's trademark weapon Mjollnir]], and the ''tsurugi'' of [[wikipedia:Muramasa|Muramasa]]. There's also {{spoiler|Stormbringer of ''[[The Elric Saga]]'', and Grayswandir from [[Roger Zelazny]]'s ''[[Book of Amber]]'', which technically won't be public domain for another 80 years yet.}}

* [[Public Domain Character]]s: [[Dracula|Vlad the Impaler]] and the various deities, among others such as [[Classical Mythology]] figures like [[Medusa]] and the [[Mad Oracle|Oracle of Delphi]]. [[Cerberus]] and Charon are [[Dummied Out]] examples.

* [[Randomly Generated Levels]]: Most of the dungeon floors in ''NetHack'' are created the second you enter them - the exceptions include non-filler Quest levels, the Castle, and any floor that bones occur on. Levels that are not randomly generated but have no set appearance (e.g., Mines' End, Sokoban, and Medusa's island), are instead created by choosing a layout from a set of templates. There are also levels that will always have certain fixtures within them while randomly generating the rest of the level around it.

* [[Reality Ensues]]: Since [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]], a lot of interactions ([[Yet Another Stupid Death|and the deaths that can result from them]]) are surprisingly logical, and often distressingly so.

* [[Regenerating Health]]: All monsters can regenerate health gradually outside of combat, including the player; in the latter case, it's subject to how encumbered theyyou are. A ring of regeneration can improve regeneration rates at the cost of lowering your nutrition faster, and the Healer quest artifact provides this perk without the latter downside. Werecreatures and trolls are monsters that boast impressive heightened regeneration.

** The Priest role has thean innate [[Aura Vision]]-like ability to [[Detect Magic|detecttell the beatitude of objects]] without the need for identification or an altar.

** {{spoiler|Also, if you genocide your own base species or role while polymorphed, the game will say "You feel empty inside", and you will die if you try to turn back; if you quit anytime afterward, the death message will read "quit while already on Charon's boat."}}

* [[Robe and Wizard Hat]]: Appear as items in the game. The Wizard role starts with a cloak of magic resistance, and is the only role that can reap benefits from the trademark pointy hat (called a "cornuthaum"). A more "traditional" robe that improves spellcasting success is also one of the many cloaks available, and both Monks and Priests start the game with one.

* [[Rodents of Unusual Size]]: Giant rats and rabid rats are common early-game enemies, and the ROUS areis one of the many [[Mushroom Samba|hallucinatory monsters]].

* ''[[Rogue (video game)|Rogue]]'': The predecessor of ''NetHack''{{'}}s predecessor, which has a [[Shout-Out]] level dedicated to it andthat adapts some of its rules.

* [[Rule of Three]]: There are three alignments, with a god to each alignment, and there are three end game bosses to fight for the three items needed to obtain the Amulet of Yendor. {{spoiler|You also face the ''other'' three Horsemen of the Apocalypse as War, the fourth Horseman.}} Erinyes are monsters that you can only ever meet three of in a given game.

* [[Save Scumming]]: Like just about any roguelike, NetHack only allows one savefile per character, removes a save upon restoring it and erases your save upon death; as explained above, it is still possible to do, but heavily discouraged unless there's an actual purpose to it.

* [[Schizophrenic Difficulty]]: Despite dangers like arch-liches, mindflayers, and {{spoiler|Rodney chasing you}}, the game getscan feel much, ''much'' easier after the first dozen levels or so due to the necessity of being [[Crazy Prepared]] for early monsters considered to be [[Demonic Spider|vastly overpowered]], such as soldier ants, leocrottas, and chameleons. As you learn the tactics required to handle these early threats, you also adapt them to later ones, and the game also remains difficult enough that the aforementioned dangers can still throw you for a loop.

* [[Schmuck Bait]]: The community refers to tactics that are very likely to [[Yet Another Stupid Death|kill the player]] as Bad Ideas™.<ref>[[TradesnarkTradesnark™]] optional.</ref> Using and trying on unidentified items randomly qualifies as this, since many such items have at least one type designed to punish this type of thoughtlessness (e.g. rings of hunger, amulets of strangulation, scrolls of amnesia). Go ahead, try that scroll labeled READ ME and see what happens. Wearable "gotcha" items will also often generate as [[Stuck Items|cursed]] for added insult to injury.

* [[Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere]]:* Vaults can be found on random levels and accessed by digging to them or teleporting there, which can happen by accident. A guard comes along to check it occasionally, and can even help you escape if you have no other means to (though you'll have to drop your gold first). However, you can fool them through a few means.

** [[Dungeon Bypass]]: The main idea of "digging for victory", and often invoked by real-time and minimum-turncount speedrunners - digrun down to reach the Castle as fast as possible, snag the wand and wish up a kit, and then win the game from there.

** [[Flat Earth Atheist]]: The "atheist" conduct involves not using any of the religious elements of the game ({{spoiler|except for sacrificing the Amulet of Yendor, and even then, there's a patch tothat eliminateeliminates this, too}}), satisfying the technical specs of this trope.

** [[Speed Run]]: Naturally. The wiki has a list of [https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Speed_ascension speed ascensions], and speed play accounts for both in-game time (i.e. turn-count) and real-time.

** [[Low-Level Run]]: The "protection racket" is a 'lesser' form of self-imposed challenge that seeks out as much gold as possible and beelines straight to Minetown to donateobtain itprotection all tofrom a temple priest., Sincethen donationstock up on other necessites and advance your character from that early fortified position. Donation effects are based on donating a certain amount of goldsgold times your current experience level, meaning that protection racketeers will want to be as low-level as possible, and- this is often done as part-and-parcel ofwith [[Pacifist Run]]s (though these will need a way to level up for the quest eventually). Orc Town's addition is maligned in part due to outright ruining the attempt if it generates, since its temple has been ransacked.

* [[Shout-Out]]: The game shouts out ''[[Rogue (video game)|Rogue]]'' in the form of the Rogue level, and includes a lot of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' references, - [[Reference Overdosed|and many,]], [[NetHack/Shout-Out|''many'' more]].

*** Breaking expensive cameras may release an imp or a homunculus, as an homage to ''[[Discworld/The Colour of Magic|The Colour of Magic]]'', where iconoscopes, the ''[[Discworld]]'' equivalent of cameras, each contain a 'picture-painting demon'.

*** Squeaky board traps now squeak in a specific pitch (e.g. "You hear a distant B flat squeak"); in ''[[Discworld/The Light Fantastic|The Light Fantastic]]'', a character has floorboards tuned so he can determine not only if someone is approaching, but also where that person is standing.

** ''[[Dune]]'' - WormThe worm tooth/ and crysknife are available as weapons.

** ''[[Zork]]'' - zorkmids function as the game world's currency.

* [[Skeleton Key]]: Present and able to unlock any door or chest; the NetHack 3.0 series introduced the unlocking tools, and had different kinds of keys that could only open corresponding types of locks. 3.1.0 removed the shaped keys and allowed unlocking tools to open any door. The Rogue quest artifact is a magical thief-aiding key.

* [[Stat Death]]: If your Intelligence drops below 3 (usually by mind flayer attack, although there are other ways to do this), you "die of "brainlessness". This can also occur for some other stats as well.

* [[Suffer the Slings]]: AnSlings are an available weapon - although not particularly effective, the ammunition is easy to come by. Cavemen start the game with a sling (and a set of rocks and flint stones) to throw, and hobbits are often found carrying them.

** [[Super Not-Drowning Skills]]: On the other hand, aquatic, amphibious and swimming monsters - which include snakes and all [[Underground Monkey|"water"-based monsters]] - can cross over water tiles easily, as can you if you are in the appropriate form.

* [[Super Weapon, Average Joe]]: Humanoid monsters can find and use wands and artifact weapons njustjust as capably as the player, which can lead to very weak monsters killing you with ease;. the[[Fan Nickname|The community refersterm tofor thissome asspecific [[Fancases is Nickname|"gnome with a wand of death"]].

* [[Super Weight]]: You start at [[Action Survivor|zero]] or occasionally [[Badass Normal|one]] on [[All The Tropes]]'s scale... except for the [[Lethal Joke Character|Tourist]], who starts at [[Mistaken for Badass|negative one]]. You spend the game [[Took a Level in Badass|climbing the scale]]. {{spoiler|All the way to four.}}

* [[Swamps Are Evil]]: Rooms on later floors in the main dungeon may contain swamps full of eels and fungi. {{spoiler|In Gehennom, Juiblex's lair is a gigantic swamp.}}

** Talking itself? Ohohoho, ''no it ain't''. Using the extended #chat command to interact with a monster will print an appropriate response and use up a turn '''''unless''''' the monster in question has no response to give (as opposed to simply being unable to respond, e.g. due to sleep or paralysis).

** You can use the quiver command (<code>Q</code>) to ready any projectiles you have for throwing virevia the fire command without using up actions.

* [[Technical Pacifist]]: See [[Pacifist Run]] above, and note that the requirement is that you don't ''personally'' kill anything. LeadingSoftening up monsters for your pet dog or, say, leading an army of high-level pets through the dungeon and letting them slaughter everything you meet is just fine.

* [[To Hell and Back]]: The bottom (second) half of the game takes place in Gehennom. Earlier NetHack versions literally had Hell instead, complete with {{spoiler|instantly frying you if you lacked fire resistance or lost it at any point. within those levels}}.

* [[Tomato in the Mirror]]: Can happen by chatting to specific bosses on the very last level of the game. "Who do you think you are, {{spoiler|War}}?"

** One clear example is the scroll of scare monster. Compared to the more easily-engraved and reusable Elbereth, it can scare monsters that even the formerengraving wouldn't ward off {{spoiler|(unless they're angelic beings)}} and works while you're blinded. You don't even have to read it - just stand on it and it'll work its magic! The catch is that you get to drop it once or maybe twice before it crumbles to dust thewhen you next timepick it up {{spoiler|(unless you pickcan keep it upblessed)}}.

* [[Touch of Death]]: Many high-level enemy spellcasters can do this, including one of the end bosses., and Gettinggetting the proper preventative gear is a common early-game priority. You can also use it if you learn the spell (which is more of a [[Death Ray]]), though it'sactually incrediblylearning and casting the spell are very difficult to do so.

* [[Trademark Favorite Food]]: Elves get the most out of the already-filling-for-its-wightweight lembas wafer; orcs tend to prefer raw meat and even tripe, and despise lembas.

* [[Trial and Error Gameplay]]: The player is supposed to make out most gameplay mechanics this way. In a game with an immense game world, permanent death, and most errors leading to said permanent death. No wonder that players doubt the possibility of ascending (winning the game) without reading spoilers. That said, the game does provide an Oracle, a special monster which gives valuable advice about the game, but she has great limitations on her consultations. There's also the [[All There in the Manual|in-game guides]].

* [[Underground Level]]: ''Most'' of the dungeon branches are this, with the exception of certain locations in some of [[the Quest]] branches.

** Only three Erinyes and nine Nazguls can be found in the dungeons. A popular [[Self-Imposed Challenge]] is to try ascending with {{spoiler|all of theirthe Nazguls' invisibility rings, which they are guaranteed to appear with, - this often includes naming them for [[The Lord of the Rings|each of the Rings from their source material}}.

** The Rogue Level is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|a level that resembles]] ''[[Rogue (video game)|Rogue]], i.e.'': all-white ASCII in a different font, andonly usesmonsters somewith ofa thatcapital-letter game'sglyph rules.spawn, gold and other items use different glyphs, Monstersmonsters don't leave corpses upon death, and doorways cannot be entered [[Diagonal Speed Boost|diagonally.]].

** The [[Sokoban]] branch prevents teleporting within its levels and won't let you move boulders diagonally until you complete the floor; unlike the namesake game, boulders can be created, broken, teleported, transformed, or even squeezed past, albeitthough atthere's a Luck penalty for eachmost of offensethese.

* [[Unusable Enemy Equipment]]: Averted; with the exception of most corpses,. ifIf an enemy has it, you can kill them and use it - provided it doesn't kill ''you'' first. MonstersSome monsters have a starting inventory and most monsters also have [[Randomly Drops|death drops]], so it can be hard to tell thewhich one an object qualifies differenceas if the monster dies without a chance to use the item. Getting particular items such as wands of death, potions of gain level, and {{spoiler|the amulet of life saving}} off enemies is particularly frustrating.

** "That was my [[Impossible Item Drop|prized wand of nothing]], [[You Bastard]]! I was saving that!"

** [[Unwinnable by Insanity]]: In fairness, boththe oflisted thesescenarios are things you essentially have to go out of your way to do in most scenariosinstances, or else have a very unfortunate series of accidents.

* [[Vancian Magic]]: The spellcasting system used in older versions of ''NetHack''; the Wizard Patch for [[SLASH'EM]] exchanged this for a more standard [[Mana|Magic Points]] system, and was fully merged into the main line of releases as of version 3.3.0. Wands still operate on this logic to a degree, requiring no magical aptitude to use but possessing a limited number of charges. Scrolls are similar as well, allowing one casting of a given spell per scroll read, and many wands and scrolls have a spell counterpart (e.g., cancellation, fireball, identify, remove curse).

** Helping a monster out of a trap mightmay make it peaceful, and you also might get an alignment boost if you're Lawfullawful.

** Players consider it very poor form to mistreat Izchak (named for deceased DevTeam member Izchak Miller), despiteeven shopkeepersthose beingwho generally maligneddislike byor otherwise try to kill shopkeepers everyone;- often, he is even spared by [[Kill'Em All|extinctionists]].!

** [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment]]: Your patron god has very firm ideas on what is and is not right action, and will come down on you hard for acting inappropriately. This doesn't ''necessarily'' mean you're supposed to be well-behaved - at minimum, you're not supposed to be ''caught''. Or, in [[Munchkin|some people's]] minds, it means surviving ''the very wrath of God''. Which is ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|doable]]''. {{spoiler|You can survive the lightning bolt with an amulet of reflection, and the wide-angle disintegration beam by ''eating a black dragon's corpse''.}} And best of all? If you do,is your god's saysresponse: "[[This Cannot Be!|I believe it not!]]"}}

* [[Villain Teleportation]]: "Covetous" monsters can warp to you freely, even on no-teleport levels, and will teleport to the upstairs to heal - and, with a couple of exceptions, they are always hostile towards you. {{spoiler|SubvertedInverted with covetous pets: A tamed lich that grows up to become a master lich or arch-lich will teleport to stay near you when moving normally, which in practice makes keeping track of it fairly easy - [[Oh Crap|but start worrying if it gets confused...]]}}

* [[Wafer-Thin Mint]]: If you're oversatiated, then eating anything - even an ''insubstantial wraith corpse''<ref>Its nutrition value is ''literally'' zero!</ref> - has a chance of causing you to choke to death... and that wraith corpse doesn't give the player a warning beforehand. {{spoiler|Amulets of magical breathing can prevent this, at least, and there's a few other methods as well.}}

* [[Walking on Water]]: Possible via water walking boots. Monsters capable of crossing water by 'swimming' (among other methods) will also appear to "walk" on the water.

* [[Walk, Don't Swim]]: The player can do this by walking into a pool with magical breathing. Regardless of whether or not you have it, you'll sink to the bottom, causing your entire inventory to end up wet (except for items in an oilskin bag); - if you ''do'', however, you can survive and walk around underwater and, pick up items such as kelp fronds lying at the bottom, though you'll also be pushed around by the currents.

* [[Weaksauce Weakness]]: Several late-game monsters have surprising weaknesses, including quest nemeses and even the last few bosses. {{spoiler|[[Horsemen of the Apocalypse|Pestilence and Famine]] can be dropped ([[Resurrective Immortality|at least temporarily]]) with a wand of death, and tooled horns can even scare both them and Death off for a while.}}

** Monsters belonging to a species with their own variant of a given weapon or pieceset of armor will generate with those where possible, e.g.,- orcish monsters will frequently generate with orcish armor and daggers, elven monsters will often generate with elven armor and weapons, and dwarves will generate most often with dwarvish armor and weapons. Playing as one of these species also gives you intrinsic knowledge of their respective items.

** Various monsters also have a specific weapon or weapon type that they are guaranteed or at least favored to be generated with (e.g., trolls and polearms, orcish monsters and scimitars, or ogres and clubs). Gnomes are unusual with respect to the aklys, as it isn't actually designated as a gnomish weapon.<ref>Rather, - it can be generated on any monster that doesn't have the "strong" attribute and can use a weapon, but has not received one; gnomes fall into that subgroup and are spawned in large numbers, particularly in the Gnomish Mines, and aremay be the first such monster most players willyou encounter.</ref>

* [[Weapon of X-Slaying]]: Commonly referred to as [https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Bane the "Banes"]: - there's Orcrist and Sting (orcs); Ogresmasher, Giantslayer, Werebane, Demonbane, Dragonbane, and Trollsbane ([[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]); and Sunsword (undead). The Sceptre of Might (nonhas a double-coaligneddamage bonus against monsters); andwith Sunsworda (undead)different alignment from you.

** {{quote|{{spoiler|<code>An invisible choir sings, and you are bathed in radiance...--More-- The voice of [your God] booms out: "Congratulations, mortal!"—More-- "In return for thy service, I grant thee the gift of Immortality!"—More-- You ascend to the status of Demigod[dess]...--More-- Do you want your possessions identified? [ynq] _</code>}}}}

* [[Whip It Good]]: Bullwhips are an available weapon type. [[AdventureAdventurer Archaeologist]]s start with a +2 bullwhip, and all balrogs and some horned devils will generate with one. Bullwhips are subpar as weapons, but also provide a valuable utility in disarming other monsters, which naturally can also be done to you.

* [[A Worldwide Punomenon]]: ''NetHack'' as a game runs entirely on this. Levitating characters will sink to the ground if they float over a sink.; Drinkingdrinking a cursed potion of gain level causes a character to move up a dungeon level.; Scrollsscrolls of mail, on UNIX systems, are delivered by a ''mail daemon''.; Ifand if you try to identify a wand of ''striking'' by engraving something on the floor, you'll receive a message that it "unsuccessfully fights your attempt to write". And that's just for starters! Boy howdy, [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]].

** Several high-level covetous monsters, including the Wizard, will also teleport to your location constantly as long as you are on the same level. All of them combine this with [["Get Back Here!" Boss]] as (mentioned above) for maximum annoyance.