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Yup.

65 (12.2%)

Not even close.

391 (73.4%)

Almost . . . but didn't

26 (4.9%)

Maybe managed halfway

51 (9.6%)

Total Members Voted: 530

[kcwong]

I've honestly never been mind flayed. The whole "a wave of psychic energy pours over you" message is one of the biggest dead giveaways of any monster in the game, and gives you more than enough time to ascertain where it is and how to prepare.

Not to mention that any number of escape items will save you 99% of the time in the off-chance that one actually manages to get close to you without you being able to Elbereth in advance.

RNG obviously loves you and hates me...

- Sometimes you get jumped before getting the psychic energy warning - e.g. the mind flayer is freshly created from a polymorph trap.
- Sometimes you fat-fingered it and performed an extended engraving. That will void the power of existing E-words until you're done.
- Without any bad status effect, your chance to dust a E-word successfully is 72%. I lost many new wizards to critters just like that. One died to a giant spider, because I failed to dust E-word three times in a row. I was at full HP (level 2 or so) and my large cat failed to kill the spider in that three turns. Out of MP, prayed shortly before for food, and my starting wand was a wand of light.

I hope RNG likes being ran inside my new cell (HTC Touch Pro 2) and gave me a break...

[JoshuaFH]

At the beginning, I'll preemptively begin E'ing the moment I think it might be necessary. That is, I'll starting E'ing before the monster is actually in attacking range.

I also routine telepathy-check a level for cockatrices and such so I won't accidentally run into them, but that's just a product of paranoia.

[Luckk]

Alright, after reading chaoticjosh and everyone elses games, I can't help but give this game another try.  I am playing as a knight currently and will be aiming not to die on the first five floors for my current goal.  (I already learned two things from my last deaths, 1.) Never wear random unidentified amulets you find and 2.) Water elementals are jerks.)

[JoshuaFH]

I recommend not playing a Knight as your first serious run. They play quite a bit differently than the other classes, mainly because of the chivalry you have to follow or you'll get an alignment penalty. This includes not hitting monsters which are running away (which means that things like Elbereth Camping and mirrors are less useful), not hitting monsters that are asleep (that leprechaun hall? GOOD LUCK! Blow a whistle, and they'll all start stealing gold from eachother, and then they'll teleport all over the place...), and eating while satiated (which might be in your best interest if you're trying to get a certain intrinsic).

I know, -1 to alignment doesn't seem that big right? Well, those add up if you don't take care...

Plus, pounding with your lance is a painful exercise in patience.

Also, it's VERY tempting to get Excalibur early. It's a good weapon, I can understand that, but using up one of your guaranteed artifact generations on Excalibur is an incredible waste when you could use those two to get your choice of the sceptre of might, the orb of detection, magicbane (Don't underestimate how incredibly useful it is!) or Grayswandir. If you can, I'd recommend holding off until you can get two wishes to get your preferred artifacts, and then, if you still want to, fountain dip for Excalibur.

[Luckk]

To late!  I already failed my goal    and died on the fourth floor from no other then food poisoning (then again, I have no idea why I thought it was a great idea to eat a garter snake corpse, rather then the four food rations I just found).  What just adds salt to my wounds is that I found two candels and a can of grease on the first four floors.

Just for help next time, do you know why my guy was getting hungry really quickly?  I didn't wear anything new but I was getting to big of a load.  That and how do you unlock chests?  I'm going to try being an archeologist this time and hope for the best.  (I still can't figure out what went through my skull that eating a rotten snake corpse was a great idea).

[chaoticag]

#force the lock, although I hear you can break your weapon that way.

[JoshuaFH]

Yeah, it's best to only eat corpses that you've just killed. No, not the one you killed a little while ago, the one you just killed.

But to answer your question, Nethack people just have really fast metabolism. Your character will lose 1 nutrition every turn. Ring hunger and amulet hunger is simply burning 1 extra nutrition every 20 turns. The exceptions to these are:

Regeneration
conflict
hunger

With those three, you'll burn an extra point of nutrition every other turn. Much faster.

Another exception is with a ring of slow digestion, which eliminates normal hunger completely, but you still have to tolerate ring hunger.

Also, there's nutrition penalties when casting spells. Without hungerless or reduced hunger spellcasting, the amount of nutrition you'll burn with every spell is 10 times that of the spell level IIRC.

Hungerless spellcasting is something only wizards have, and basically:

14 or lower INT: 0% reduced hunger spellcasting
15 Int: 25% reduced hunger spellcasting
16: 50% reduced hunger spellcasting
17 or higher: 100% reduced hunger spellcasting

Also, the amulet of Yendor is special in that simply carrying it incurs a penalty similar to amulet hunger, but this penalty stacks ontop of amulet hunger.

To open chests: early on, you can use an edged weapon to #force a lock. This'll always use your equipped weapon, so it's best to get a spare weapon you don't mind breaking until you get a lockpick, key, or credit card, which you can (a)pply to a chest to unlock it. Be wary though, 10% of chests are trapped, so it's good to (u)ntrap them a couple times to be certain you're not opening something that will kill you.

You can also #force with a blunt weapon, or kick a chest until the lock breaks, but I strongly advise against this, as it might break valuable things inside the chest.

[Luckk]

Alright, thanks for the help but something even stranger just happened.  I don't know if the game is trying to mock me with snakes now, but a baby garter snake just crawled out of my pack and was tamed.  Wait, nevermind, its from that egg I found.  As a final question before I continue, is there a special floor when you find two staircases leading down?

[JoshuaFH]

Alright, thanks for the help but something even stranger just happened.  I don't know if the game is trying to mock me with snakes now, but a baby garter snake just crawled out of my pack and was tamed.  Wait, nevermind, its from that egg I found.  As a final question before I continue, is there a special floor when you find two staircases leading down?

Yes, you will find a level with two staircases leading down very early. One staircase leads you further into the dungeons of doom, and the other leads you into the gnomish mines, a branch of the main dungeon. The gnomish mines are always generated in every game, so it would be unusual for you to NOT find it.

There is no other level with two staircases leading down, but there are levels with two staircases leading up.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The staircase leading into Sokoban, and another staircase in Gehennom that leads you into Vlad's tower.

[kcwong]

#force the lock, although I hear you can break your weapon that way.

Yes, bladed weapons might break if used to force a lock. So it can be convenient to carry some uncursed orcish (crude) daggers for that purpose. Blunt weapons will not break, but it will destroy the box and likely its content.

Without a skeleton key, lock pick or credit card, you can kick the box instead. Potions inside have a good chance to break before you get the lock disabled. Also, make sure you check the box for traps first, and know that the sound will wake monsters nearby. You might want to clear the level first, then come back to kick it open.

[Luckk]

Well, Ive been getting better at the game slowly, but I think I just had one of the quickest/saddest deaths.  Its the last one on the list, he died quickly on turn 21, but whats disappointing was the fact that it was my most recent one.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[JoshuaFH]

Don't worry Luckk, you're not the first.

[ToonyMan]

I ran downstairs (a dagger followed).  I stumbled about a bit and ran into two rock creatures.  I ran and blocked them with a handy boulder.  I'm looking around for Sokoban.  I'm pretty sure it's after the Oracle.  Maybe I will beat it!

[rickvoid]

So, I had a stroke of amusement this afternoon. I've been enjoying replaying the Metal Gear Solid games, and it just hit me: I can play Metal Gear Solid in Nethack. Sort of.

I'll basically have to do a Let's Play, but that should be amusing enough. I figure I'll play, keep track of what I'm doing, and then post about it when I take breaks.

Aiding me in this is the game itself. There are two things I can name (my pet, and the generic "fruit"), and I can always "name" items as well. The choices I've already made:
If Puppy pet: Otacon.
If Kitten pet: Raiden. Because he's a pussy. 
The Fruit: Metal Gear. (Quick question: I know that kicking a fortune cookie destroys it. Will it do the same to fruit? Because, if so, that is totally going to be a conduct: Destroy all Metal Gears.  )

I've got other ideas, but if everybody hate this idea, I won't bother. I don't plan on starting til tomorrow anyway, so... yeah.

The Opening Codec Call:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Snake: Colonel, I'm at the sneak point.
Campbell: Right on time.
Snake: It appears to be a rough-cut stairway descending into the ground. What is this?
Campbell: Snake, have you ever heard of Nethack?
Snake: The Dungeons of Doom?
Campbell: The same. Your mission is the infiltrate the dungeon, steal the Amulet of Fate, and bring it back to the surface.
Snake: An amulet, huh? What does it do?
Otacon: No one knows. We think it's a highly advanced piece of technology, designed by the "Master" of the dungeon.
Snake: The Master?
Otacon: Right. He's considered a genius in the fields of Technology and Genetic Engineering. They say the things he creates work like... magic.
Snake: Magic!?
Otacon: Yeah. He calls himself a "Wizard".
Snake: ... Colonel. Am I ever going to get a mission that isn;t completely cracked from the get-go?
Campbell: ...
Snake: Damn.
Otacon: Snake, he may be a lunatic, but he's a dangerous one. The dungeon is full of his genetic aberrations.
Snake: Mei Ling deliver any of her special toys?
Campbell: You're carrying a few basic supplies, and a melee weapon, but for everything else you'll have to procure what you need on-site.
Snake: OSP, huh?
Campbell: Yes.
Snake: Anything else that's going to go horribly wrong?
Otacon: Maybe. We've heard that anyone who goes in has their metabolism sped up significantly. If you start to feel hungry, make sure you eat something right away. You could starve down there.
Snake: Understood. Beginning Operation YASD.
<End Call>

[ToonyMan]

Snake?  Snake??!  SNAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEE.