Old School - Nethack

found a 3rd magic lamp during the quest so i blessed + rubbed the second one and wished up some grey dragon mail - enchanted that, found the shield of reflection on perseus's statue and enchanted that up. i'm at -15 AC and down to the castle. few things i want if i can survive the castle and get to the wand like gauntlets of ogre power and cloak of magical resistance. an uncursed magic marker and i can generate a bunch of enchant armor and i think get well above 20. didn't find a t-shirt either so i might wish one of those up. i don't remember - if you get to the wand and immediately wish for 2 blessed scrolls of charging how many wishes do you get out of that? oh, some scrolls of genocide would be nice too bc fuck liches, mind flayers + disenchanters. anyway, closed it for the night bc i'm getting tired + distracted and that's no way to go into a castle that apparently has numerous liches, disenchanters, dragons and one mind flayer in it.

The pet sucks :(

Iirc you can only recharge your wand of wishing once, after that it will explode. Found this in a wiki: "Your first wish from this wand should be a source of charging, if you do not already have one. This typically involves wishing for 2 or 3 blessed scrolls of charging. If you have already identified charging scrolls, you should wish for a magic marker and write your own. Wizards with high Luck have a good chance of writing unknown scrolls, and should generally wish for a magic marker instead."

How did you bless your magic lamp? I've a cursed magic lamp atm (yes, started playing again, your fault) and can't remember a way to have it blessed. Not encountered holy water, nor have I found an altar of my alignment, which sucks.

Also, when do you go down Sobhokan, the puzzle/labyrinth levels? Do you do it on first encounter? It's got some nice artefacts but it's boring as hell to play.

i've gotten pretty good and quick at it and the bag of holding is essential (and the amulet of reflection isn't too bad either) and sometimes you find some good rings +wands. when playing valk i go in order: a. hit lvl 5 to get excalibur, b. go to minetown, c. go down to sokoban and do that, d. go to mines' end

i think only way to bless the magic lamp is holy water. which means u need an altar of yr alignment. which means either finding one or converting one. don't convert one that has a priest or they will blast you.

ha! thought my so far v successful game was fucked when this formerly peaceful giant summoned a master mind flayer and a minotaur (among others) which quickly dropped me down to... well... take a look for yourself

http://i.imgur.com/VMjLRva.png

i thought for sure i was dead. but i am alive. what did i do? quaffed two potions of extra healing and then broke the wand of teleportation i was holding! whoop whoop!

<uncomfortable silence as everyone realises Mordy's playing a graphical version>

tbf i'm playing 2 games at once -- nethackcocoa (which has the tileset) and alt.org which doesn't

nb shortly after this screenshot i blew up my bag of holding (i want to blame the mind flayer for amnesiaing me but really it was just sloppy inattentive play) with all my good shit in it, said fuck it, went to the castle, tore through everything and got to the wand. so i think that'll end up saving my game. but damn i have a lot to make up.

idk, too much ascii makes my eyes hurt :/

yeah balls to playing in ascii if you don't have to

Mordy do you ever read strategy guides on this or is it just relentless playing over and over that's taught you everything?

I have definitely looked things up but much more a couple years ago and now I look up very little (like generally v obscure things like if I toss a ring into a sink and don't remember what the message means).

Some things you need spoiled I think or you'd never know how to do them ime - kudos to anyone who gets anywhere in this thing with no spoilers. I don't think I'd enjoy it

yeah that's my take on it but i'm still probably too spoiler averse on this thing

this revive made me download the latest ish - didn't realise they'd updated in the last couple of years

Never seen that graphic version, am still playing ascii myself. It's just what I'm used to, played this for the first time nearly thirty years ago, on an old xenix machine. Tried graphic versions but I'm too accustomed to ascii.

Spoilers: Not a fan, but have to agree with Mordy. Some things are nearly impossible to learn without them. My base knowledge is good enough to ride it out, I've ascended nearly ten times I think? No doubt with more knowledge I could do it faster, better etc, but meh.

NV, are you new to this or have you played it often before?

Mordy, what did breaking your wand do?

My latest effort got short tracked when I got death zapped by a kobold. -_-

it teleported all the monsters surrounding me to elsewhere in the level

kobold w/ a death wand!!!

I know, so tragic a death I could only laugh tbh.

I really need spoilers on breaking wands and the effects of that, as that is completely new to me. Great escape!

i used to play it quite a lot a few years ago tho i suspect not as much as some of you guys, always pondered whether to look at guides or not, could do with a guide that tells you stuff you really need to know without killing all the surprises i think

salvaged that shit - reconstituted my inventory, got a bunch of levels down in gehennim, grabbed the candleabra, things were going great, and then i blew up my bag of holding again bc thoughtlessness. felt so despondent i "let" a master lich destroy me. time to start over.

Oof, that's harsh. (did you have the Grayswandir? Especially useful in Ghehenomm)

I'm not a big gamer, but unlike other games having to start over, with Nethack a death never bothers me for long? With Super Mario, say, you have to do everything over again exactly the same way. Nethack is fresh and a completely new exp from the get go. Which even makes having to do Sokoban every time again bearable.

yes, one thing that makes it not just bearable but actually kinda enjoyable to start a new game (and why i have 2 simultaneous) is v similar ime to like opening a new booster pack of mtg cards when i was a kid - just the totally fresh possibility of everything / who knows what you'll find (often punctuated by disappointment but w/ exciting enough results often enough that the brain def gets hooked on this skinnerism shit and just can't wait to rip open the new pack / restart the game and see what shit is lying around waiting to be identified).

i hadn't seen a bones file floor since i started playing again but last night i started a game where i hit 3 in a row and they all had amazing stuff on them. i only just finished the mines (and grabbed my luckstone) and i already have Mjollnir, a +7 Excalibur, +2 gray dragon scale male, a bag of holding, 2 magic markers, an amulet of reflection, a ton of rings i need to identify, a ton of wands i need to identify, and just stacks and stacks of potions and scrolls. and super lucky conveniently placed altars throughout the dungeons for easy BUC identification and holy water production. i'm only trying to play when i can focus my attention (so i stop accidentally putting wands of cancellation and bags of tricks into my bags of holding) so it'll have to wait until after my kids are asleep tonight, but i'm feeling pretty good about this one. and i still have like 20 floors to go before the castle.

question: does anyone know - if the valkyrie throws mjollnir at an eel, and it doesn't return (i think it has a 1% chance of not returning) - is there a way to fish it out of the water? or is it just lost at that point? cause one of the main reasons i want the gauntlets of power is so i can throw it at eels and not have to get close enough to be drowned.

Wow, that's really fortunate Mordy. Were you able to uncurse all those items with holy water? +7 Excaliber! I've not encountered a bones file on my recent travails.

I ended playing (Valkyrie as well) last night in the Castle. The eels in the moat aren't trouble at all, one or two blows with Exc and they're dead. Not sure if you will retrieve your Mjollnir though. Maybe if you have an amulet of magical breathing and can swim over the place you dropped it? Don't quote me on that though.

If you've got a wand of teleportation you can also teleport the eel onto land, where it's basically powerless. The amount of eels is fixed iirc, there won't be new ones popping up ad infinitum I think.

So I'm at the Castle now and have a decent kit. I like playing at night but should indeed stop before I love concentration, too. Last night a simple miss press of a key caused me to nearly drown and "drop some stuff to be able to crawl out", something like that? Turned out I'd lost my bag of holding in the water ;_; In the same castle is a wand of wishing so asked for a holding bag again, but still.

*stop concentrating

that's rough but at least you didn't blow up your bag of holding, wish for a new one, and then blow that one up too :p

Blessed +2 Silver Lining ;)

got everything identified and things are even better off than i thought. the magic markers have no recharges registered on them and respectively 94 + 38 charges. one of those rings is a polymorph control and one is a polymorph ring. (one of the cursed ones is a levitation too - but that's easily fixable.) also identified one of the scrolls as enchant armor so i can start bumping stuff up - esp as i find better gear than the mostly standard stuff i have. unfortunately having things go so well means that i'm feeling super conservative and i barely want to play lest i fuck up.

i'm thinking about polymorphing into a master mind flayer. does anyone have any experience with this? i know about not attacking cockatrices.

Honestly couldn't tell you. Do you get to keep all your stuff as a mind flayer?

I got offed at Vlad's just now... Not that disappointed, my kit was mediocre (forgot to pick up seven candles even, lol). Conflicted, as always, as to start over again straight away or take a break. The latter probably most wise, but after playing so much the last couples of days this feeling of 'fuck I want to better myself' - and having the Saturday night off - I just want to dive right back in. This fucking game eh?

otm lost my v promising character to an eel I tried to teleport away only remembering a second too late that the floor was non teleport. Let out a stream of curses and then immediately started a new character.

just marked the vibrating square

Watching Stranger Things reminded me of terrifying battles with Demogorgon

You run into him at all, Mordy

Also tell us about your character, I will never play Nethack again until I'm laid up with an illness but I always wanna hear about it

Very exciting Mordy! I've not started a new game as I said I would upthread, probably need an illness before I fire it up again just like 0wen, but do tell us more.

here is all i have to say

http://imgur.com/Tru25zu

http://imgur.com/lbY4mtv

http://i.imgur.com/Tru25zu.png

http://imgur.com/lbY4mtv.png

sorry for tileset. my heart is still beating v quickly. you may notice that i offered while i was fainting and blind. the rider next to the lawful altar where i ascended was death. i essentially ignored him and ran past.

in the end i had a full valk ascension kit -- twoweaponed excalibur and a silver sabre, gauntlets of power, helm of telepathy, i had 3 amulets of life saving - 1 of which i ended up needing, rings of conflict, slow digestion, and free action (i ended up almost starving to death by the end bc i could only wear two at a time) -- i actually did starve to death once, that's why i needed that amulet of life saving. i kept fainting while a bunch of summoned monsters wailed on me. i found one wand of wishing but enough magic markers that i was able to enchant everything up to +4 or +5. i also brute wrote genocide and charging scrolls to keep my wishing and 2 death wands charged up.

near the end i found a couple magic lamps and i rubbed one and wished for a third death wand which turned out to be a good move bc i ended up using all 3 of them. i had silver dragon mail, cloak of magic resistance, and not enough prep for the actual ascension. when i do it again i will make sure to have enough holy water (i only had 3 vials and i could've used more like 9 -- luckily nothing too essential ever got cursed), and to have a way to get confused so i can read spells to find magic portals. instead i had to brute search for them which was a pita.

um - what else to say. the random teleportation in gehennam hit me particularly bad and i spent probably half an hour retracing my steps trying to get out. it was super annoying. once i did get out tho it was v smooth all the way up to the first floor. rodney showed up a few times but my many death wands kept him at bay. hard to emphasize how annoying the teleportation effect tho was -- i thought for a bit that i'd shut down for the night because i didn't have the patience to keep going. it turns out i did.

now i'm smoking a celebratory joint

i kinda never thought i'd ascend - i took a long break but last couple weeks i had been craving a rich gameplay experience and nothing was delivering so i booted up nethack again and it was exactly what i wanted. it's ridiculous but it's also so deep and requires so much attentiveness and as insane as this probably sounds i love the inventory juggling and making sure you have each piece you need and getting yr identification system set up, and finding a reliable BUC check, and getting a steady stream of holy water and exploiting opportunities for wishes. it's funny bc i thought that if i ascended i'd exorcise it permanently from my life but now that it's over i keep thinking about how tempting a wizard ascension looks. if anything it'll be nice to find an identification spellbook and never have to worry about that bullshit again...

...or maybe i should take another break.

"The Amulet of Yendor named REAL" :D (I've done that when I also found the fake plastic one)

Very impressive, Mordy, and a well deserved joint I'd say. I'd say quite a speedy run as well, I've never ascended under 50k moves. Your inventory is something I've not even come close to since I started again in the last couple of weeks. Your abundance of live saving amulets would've been welcome. But like you I too enjoy the inventory juggling. Not about the destination but about the journey etc. Massive props to you, this is a very, very good Ascension. Can imagine how you felt at the moment you sacrificed the amulet.

One question: you say you kept writing charge scrolls for your wand of wishing. Doesn't it turn to dust after two charges? Oh, and how do you 'brute write' genocide?

i used the charge scrolls for the wand of wishing but also for the death wands and the magic markers so i got a lot of use out of my stuff. the thing is tho that i never found a charging scroll 'out in the wild' and i only found a genocide scroll in gehennom which, from experience, would've been too late for me. but even if you're not a wizard you can try writing unknown scrolls. you'll fail a bunch but you can 'brute force' the scroll eventually and once you know it, you can replicate it. so i kept trying to write charging and genocide scrolls until i figured it out (went thru a bunch of scrolls and magic marker charges but once i had charging i had a lot more magic marker and i found plenty of scrolls to blank). ended up genociding liches, mind flayers, master mind flayers (separately bc a blessed genocide of mind flayers would've killed all dwarves including me as well), sea monsters, and disenchanters. i couldn't even think of what else i cared about genociding at that point so i ended the game with a scroll or 2 of genocide i found in gehennom unused. you'll see that i used a ton of wishes. i got 5 out of the wand of wishing (found w/ one charge + 3 with recharging + wringing final wish from the wand), 2 out of magic lamps, and 1 out of sitting on the throne in vlad's. it was the first throne sit that did anything good for me the entire game and by that time i didn't even need it so iirc i wished for another wand of death.

i'm so happy that i still haven't closed the app. it's open to the final image.

any trips for playing as a wizard? i'm just so squishy at the beginning of the game. the furthest i've gotten is to around level 7.

What version? I've ascended with a wiz but relied HEAVILY on Elbereth, which has been very much nerfed in 3.6

I've never ascended as a wizard - I've not ascended with a lot of other types, but def tried (and died) the most with wizard. If you chose your alignment and aren't an atheist, it's key to sacrifice early on in the game to get Magicbane (and enchant it a couple of times once you have it). Also, since wizards are weak, keep your pet close, even if your pet does most of the killing for you, leading to you not being as exp as you could have been. I save the mines to rack up exp and strength usually when I'm confident I can take it on. Helm of brilliance also an absolute necessity, esp later on, for reading and spell-casting successfully.

But I feel your pain and I am yet to crack it myself. The wizard's dilemma continuously seems to be: keep exp low, so no tougher monsters are generated; or big up your exp, but that leads to tougher combat. You can reach the mid stages of the game having chosen either, but at some point you find yourself severely lacking because of the path you did not choose.

I love you are still playing this btw. I am too. It's "complicated", my relationship with nethack, but it's def my first love that I will forever reminisce about and play again and again. Looking forward to hearing on how you proceed.

I think the main reason I love playing as a wizard is that you encounter different spellbooks from run to run, so you're forced to adapt and be flexible, making the most of what you find (until you find a magic marker heheh)--better hope you don't just find, like, Knock, Wizard Lock, and Stone to Flesh!

Haham I get that! I started playing (net)hack on a unix machine, when I was 8 or 9 years old, and me and my buddy would *always* play wizard, hoping one sweet day we'd start with the ray of death. We had no clue, but that's how it started! Learning spells is quite the chore, even for the stasis nethack is as a game.

Dan, what 'route' did you choose on your successful ascension? Keep exp low to avoid stronger combat or just go all in

It never occurred to me to to try to keep xp low, unless you're trying to get protection from the priest in minetown without going broke!

Rather than trying to keep xp low, if you don't feel confident that you can handle more difficult monsters, stay in the upper levels longer.