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[McDoomhammer]

I tend to play and die as a healer.  At least the stethoscope makes threat assessment easier, assuming it's something you can run away from after you find out it pwns you.

[Sowelu]

Nethack is not a game for the impatient.  My experience actually parallels what happens when I play video golf, which is to say:  You need to sit there and really analyze the situation and carefully plan things out EVERY SINGLE MOVE.  Can't think of how many times I've died in melee when I could have used a wand of fire...or tried to take down a critter who was USING a wand of fire, when I should have opened up the source, discovered that I have no chance of surviving another 6d12 hit, and zapped my wand of digging downwards to run screaming.

Whenever the game gets tense, -before- the monster gets in range, open up your inventory and look at all your magic items again... This is true in Nethack more than in Angband due to carrying more items (and they're more powerful than in ADOM).  Failure to do that gets you so dead.

...and that's why I suck at it.

[McDoomhammer]

I know, for a game that has no pace but what you make of it, it really sucks you in, doesn't it?  I love all the quirks and unexpected things you can do, too- like 'diagnosing' wands by engraving with them.

[BishopX]

The thing I love most about nethack are the escape mechanisms, like using a cursed scroll of earth to buy you some time to rest up and regain hit points.
My best run was a near ascension as a mostly dwarven valkerie (I spent significant amount of time as a dragon, a lich and xorn) who was thwarted at the bitter end when I ran out of wands of death.

**Massive spoilers**

For Those of you who are interested this site has a stupendous collection of spoilers about just about every aspect of the game. The tend to get more spoilerific as you go down the page though.

Nethack spoilers

[Hyperturtle]

yeah, don't throw the pickaxe straight up.

and wear gloves before beating people with a cockatrice corpse, but be careful not to fall down the stairs while wielding said corpse.  Toss the tins of cockatrice meat away, too...

One of my best games involved turning my dog into a jabberwock, putting a saddle on him, and KICKING MAJOR ASS.  He ended up a higher level than me.  hell, who needs money when he ate the shopkeepers.  Anyway I was about to use the bell book and candle on the vibrating square when my OS crashed.  I was an elven wizard and finger of death was my favorite spell!  next to charm monster and polymorphing the monsters.

I once pissed off my god so much that he zapped, then fried, disintigrated, and a whole number of things and then gave up and went away when I resisted everything.  half of my stuff was cursed afterwards, though.

And did you know nethack is available for windows based PDAs?  nethack on the go!

[kcwong]

quote:Originally posted by Hyperturtle:
<STRONG>and wear gloves before beating people with a cockatrice corpse, but be careful not to fall down the stairs while wielding said corpse.  </STRONG>

Actually, never move with a footrice corpse as your active weapon. If you need to move, press x to switch the footrice corpse into secondary slot. Otherwise you might become a nice statue inside a nice pitfall trap.

You can never be too careful with footrice.

Properly dispose of any footrice corpse you created (or something else created). Some enemies are capable of wielding them, and that's instant death for you, no slowing down and no chance to use lizard corpse/acid.

[ April 18, 2008: Message edited by: kcwong ]

[Kagus]

quote:Originally posted by Keiseth:
<STRONG>3. Wizard, drank from the first sink, Succubus popped up... things happened and he died of exhaustion.
</STRONG>

Now, I've got to ask; was that because he spellcast himself to death, or was it due to slightly more entertaining causes?

[Keiseth]

As far as I can tell... "slightly more entertaining causes". Interestingly enough it never happens unless you're really weak, like a level one wizard.

quote:HyperTurtle: I once pissed off my god so much that he zapped, then fried, disintigrated, and a whole number of things and then gave up and went away when I resisted everything. half of my stuff was cursed afterwards, though.

Alt+S and sit on your god's altar. Sure fire way to make 'im really mad. Also, never sit down in a poisoned spiked pit trap that you've already fallen in.

Slightly amusing: Be entirely disintegration immune (eat black dragon corpses, be a black dragon, black dragon mail and so on) and your god will have a lot of difficulty punishing you. It feels funny to outsmart a god.

[BishopX]

Even better, become disintegration resistant and then get swallowed by something that isn't,like Jubilex...

My favorite cockatrice trick is to polymorph into one, lay some eggs and then use them as throwing weapons (this can make unlucky, so use a luck stone).

My favorite death of all time was starving to death while stuck inside a wall...

[Keiseth]

I never thought of that, Bishop! Nice. Though this is probably well known; get swallowed by something and zap a wand of digging (or cast it?) outwards: if I recall correctly, it'll usually be so effective as to instantly take your attacker to 1HP.

And it's just pretty badass in general. Though, I can't remember if it works on vortexes and the like. Think I used a purple worm to test it.

Edit: That one might be SlashEM, I'm not sure...

[ April 19, 2008: Message edited by: Keiseth ]

[BishopX]

yeah, zapping a wand of digging down works well against being swallowed in net hack.

[McDoomhammer]

The stone to flesh spell can be fun to putz with.  Not just good for saving your pet from the cockatrices, it's also fun when used on boulders (no more bloccked corridors!), rocks (instant meatballs!) and rock golems.  Try not to get rings caught in it, though.

Also always eat dead floating eyes.  But don't do that in Incursion.

[Tahin]

I've learned just yesterday that the best way to not die is to never use any item unless you know exactly what it is going to do or are prepared for the consequences of anything that it might be. It's taken me a very long time to figure this out. It wasn't until I read a scroll and ended up surrounded by monsters that I decided on this new policy. And of course I forgot about Elbereth and died very fast. I think I might have even had a wand of teleport on me without knowing it until I died... damn.

[kcwong]

quote:Originally posted by Tahin:
<STRONG>I've learned just yesterday that the best way to not die is to never use any item unless you know exactly what it is going to do or are prepared for the consequences of anything that it might be. It's taken me a very long time to figure this out. </STRONG>

BUC (Blessed/Uncursed/Cursed) and Item identification are a big part of NetHack... one of the things a new character has to learn to do, and to do it early. There're many tricks to ID items though... experiment. Remember, the long, winding path to ascension is paved with bodies... bodies of your previous characters.  

quote:Originally posted by McDoomhammer:
<STRONG>Also always eat dead floating eyes.</STRONG>

Make that "eat one fresh floating eye corpse you just created".   You don't need more unless the intrinsic got stolen, or you (lawful and neutral) murdered someone.
New monks shouldn't eat too much meat. They don't have the alignment to offset the penalty of eating meat.

[Silu]

Ah, Nethack. I even managed to ascend twice when I still played about a year ago. I usually roll'd Wizard, Priest or Monk and died horribly to the first pony that came around. Ah those memories.

I even have some pictures to share.

My first, did it with a wizard.

Second one, priest.

[ April 24, 2008: Message edited by: Silu ]