I run across a goblin statue, and smash it on the way through. Statues in the dungeon have a small chance of being statue traps that will spawn the corresponding monster, or otherwise can contain items that you liberate by smashing (usually spellbooks). A priest with the stone to flesh spell can revert a statue to life as well. As an archaeologist I would take a penalty smashing historic statues, but those are labeled as “historic statue of __” and only appear on certain levels. Unfortunately, the goblin statue held nothing but rocks.

I am accosted by a trio of elves later on, which allows me to name one of the types of  random boots as elven and eat some delicious elf meat. Elven boots give stealth when worn, but I already have it so do not keep these. Elf corpses of any type can bestow the sleep resistance intrinsic so eating these is especially important. I eat two without receiving it, then tin the third for later.

Another wand in a room with a fountain. Engrave testing this one identifies it immediately, as a wand of light. That would have been useful in the mines, heh. Nothing else to find on this level, so moving down.

I hear the level sound before I even put on the blindfold, there’s a werewolf here. Were creatures are dangerous because their bite can cause lycanthropy, causing you to uncontrolled polymorph into werecreature form every few hundred turns. Wolves are especially dangerous because the werewolf animal form is large and causes you to break your body armor when you change. I’m avoiding this one for now, I don’t have a way to cure the disease without praying. luckily he’s in a locked room so avoidance is not an issue.

Wandering around what I can of DL 5 is a little boring. The most exciting thing that happens is being engulfed by a dust vortex, which honestly isn’t that exciting really. When engulfed by a creature you take periodic damage but your weapon swings will always hit, so it can be a good way to train in an unskilled weapon for some players. I am dangerous with a mattock and bash my way out quickly. I find a couple scrolls, and a clear potion that is plain ordinary water.

Starting to feel self conscious about the cursed gear I’ve been wearing, and feeling the need to identify these scrolls identify scroll or no. I think I’ll turn around here and head back to minetown and see about doing so in the hopes of finding a remove curse scroll, or failing that praying on the altar for Camaxtli to help with the cursed stuff. Sometimes taking the time to put yourself in a bit better situation is the best way to keep yourself alive.

I make a pit stop on DL 3 to buy the stethoscope for sale in the hardware store. Was a bit worried about my alignment being so early in the game and wanted to make sure I was still on my god’s good side before I try praying. Applying a stethoscope at yourself gives a message about your status, which includes alignment and I am apparently pious which is good. A deep breath and I’m back on DL 2. Don’t forget to blindfold this time.

Telepathy reveals the demon, who is lurking outside the room with the upstairs but not moving otherwise. It also reveals something unexpected, a shopkeeper I had no idea was there. Neat. I’m still woefully underequipped to take on the demon so I move quickly back to the mines.

Next time; sundering, reading and swimming! Look forward to it!

The hardware store has two good things in it. A lock pick, which is one of three tools can be used to unlock doors or chests you find locked. I’d rather have a skeleton key, as non rogues get no bonus for unlocking with a pick… but I’ll take it anyway. The other item is a blindfold, which may not seem useful but will be once I manage to gain telepathy. Just about ready to leave minetown, but before I do I want to test this no message wand once more. Zap it at the open door to one of the now  empty little rooms off the path, and “The door swings shut and locks!” The wand is locking, which is good to know… most monsters aren’t smart enough to open doors.

On the way back up I meet the housecat that was wandering around again. Since I have a whistle now to make pet management easier I tame it. You can tame animals that are in the domestic category, even hostile ones by throwing them a food item that they consider a treat. For dogs and cats this is a meat item such as tripe or food rations, and for pony and horse it is a vegetable like a carrot, apple or sprig of wolfsbane. I head back upstairs whistling my cat along with me.

I’m heading back upstairs here because I would rather explore the sokoban dungeon branch before heading to Mine’s End. Sokoban is a good source of food and a chance at either an amulet of reflection or a bag of holding, either of which would be very useful. It also has much less chance of dangerous traps than continuing in the mines does. So that is what I shall do, with a quick stop at the closed shop before continuing in the main dungeon.

I missed a bag on one of the dark levels, and when I #loot it it bites me. This is a bag of tricks, which when applied summons a random monster. Useful only while you want to create monsters, but I bring it along anyway.

I’m ambushed by a pack of gnomes and their minions on the top floor of the mines. The cyan potion was paralysis, which luckily only lasted three turns but still scared me. I decided to let the housecat chew on the homunculus but it is overcome and dies (sad). I clear the way myself and move on petless.

A bit further on there is another floating eye. I picked up some daggers along the way so I should be able to kill this one will ranged attacks. I throw my daggers and they strike true.

Good timing on feeling hungry, because I’m about to eat me some floating eye corpse. Only 50% of eyes will leave a corpse, but when one does it has 100% chance to give you telepathy.

The corpse was rotten, but after I wake up from passing out I finish eating it anyway. You feel a strange mental acuity. Now when I wear my blindfold I will be able to see creatures on the level that have minds, anywhere on the level. It doesn’t work for mindless creatures or undead, but is amazingly useful. Of course, I forget to wear it when passing DL 2 to see what the demon is up to. Oops… oh well, he didn’t molest me on the way through to DL 3 so guess I’m lucky for that.

The message in the dust has worn away a bit when I get back. Things you engrave or write in the dust will become illegible once they’ve been walked on enough, which makes Elbereth a temporary respite unless you have a permanent way to write or you can levitate (if you don’t touch the ground you don’t smudge the writing). I use the lockpick to open the door, and let’s see what kind of shop we have.

It’s another hardware store, and a big one. Renrut has some good stuff, including towels, expensive cameras, candles and leashes but what catches my eye is that lamp up there. A magic lamp is a permanent light source while it stays magic, and if you have a way to bless is an 80% chance at a wish when #rubbed (positive luck applies). Hoping this one is magic.

Unfortunately it isn’t, can tell by the price. I rename it oil lamp and drop. I buy the candles he has for sale and both his magic markers so I can write scrolls when I identify the useful ones. Nothing exciting happens after I leave the shop and head to DL 4.

Coyotes! The coyote is one of my favorite monsters in the game, and it’s because of the description when you look at one. In an homage to the roadrunner cartoons every time you look at a coyote the name changes, here it’s Eatibus Anythingus. When I used to play on my pc using the Falcon’s Eye port the name would change on mouseover, which was always hilarious. Can’t tame them though, so they die.

I wear the blindfold to take stock of the level before I begin opening doors. The only creature with a brain on the level is a gecko, heh. So for now anyway it seems safeish here.

Next time, more exploring and monster bashing!

Actually we won’t see before the inhabitants try to kill me. Two gnomish wizards pile out of the shops and jump me. I thwack the one with my mattock, but he quaffs a dark potion that I know now is full healing. The wizards don’t manage to cast any spells that hurt me and I take care of them.

The first two shops I come across are a hardware store that sells tools and a bookstore with one scroll and several spellbooks. I approach the room in the center of town that is likely the temple, and get some good news walking through the door.

The altar and priest are coaligned, meaning they share my alignment (neutral). Makes things better when it’s this way, as when you enter a temple with a coaligned priest you gain sanctuary and monsters will not normally attack you.

Continue wandering the town, wave to Izchak through the door of his shop (no lamp so not going in for now). The last shop in the corner is a general store, a tiny three tile one. Even three tiles is enough for identification, so I’ll take it.

I hate shopkeepers. They know it’s easy for someone who can dig to steal from them, so they ask you to leave your pick or mattock outside before coming in. Always worried some random monster will come pick it up when I drop my weapon.

Identifying items by price is a little tricky, but once you know the basics it’s a powerful way to learn what items are. Shopkeepers will offer to buy items from you for half their base cost, or occasionally 1/4 less than that. If you drop an item a few times they will make an offer each time so not difficult to weed out the 1/4 less cases.

I have quite a collection of scrolls and potions to price out. The method works on wands, spellbooks and rings too, but amulets all have the same base price. I drop the stuff in my pack one by one and rename them with the base cost.

For example, this is a scroll he offered 40 for, making the base price 80. I know that there are two scrolls with this cost, so this is either enchant armor or remove curse. Some price points have more items than others, several of my scrolls were cost 100.

I also picked up the whistle he had for sale, to test it and see if it’s a magic whistle.

Lucky! Magic whistles are so incredibly useful. Blowing one that is uncursed or blessed will bring your tame pets to you from anywhere on the level. No more worrying about getting scaredy cats to follow me. I buy it.

Out in the hall, a floating eye floats ominously. Floating eyes are dangerous even for seasoned players, because if you attempt to melee it without being blind or free action it will paralyze you. The paralysis lasts a long time, more than enough for a weak monster to nibble you to death. I have a few darts on me from upstairs but would prefer to have more if I’m going to try to kill this, so I back off… and into the path of the yellow light that came around the corner.

You might say, “This is a good thing, now you can kill the eye while blind!” but remember, minetown has the peaceful watchmen and watch captain walking around and if I bump into one of them trying to walk around they will get angry and all try to kill me. I begin resting with the [.] key to wait out the blindness.

If you become aware of a monster while blind it marks the location with an I, like this. Something that is attacking me is fair game, so I attack back and kill it still blind. If I were searching instead of waiting it would place I’s where I felt a monster near me as well, but gives no idea what the creature might be. I continue waiting.

I can finally see again, 119 turns later. The eye is right next to me, but as long as I don’t attack it can’t hurt me… and apparently my assailant was a mummy as there is a mummy wrapping on the ground. For the meantime, I’m safe after the tense period of blindness.

Come back next time, when I finish up Minetown visit number 1 and get back to dungeon running. See you then!

It’s dark. So dark I can’t see beyond arms length in any direction. Stumbling around in the dark is always fun of course, but in the mines you have to worry about the short people hiding in the shadows… and they have infravision so they can see you just fine!

I wander slowly a few paces from the stairs up and let the gnomes come. A pack of them gains me another level, and after a bit more wandering I get a most welcome message.

NetHack is an RPG at heart, and weapons and spellcasting all use skills to judge how effective and likely you are to use them correctly. Each class is proficient in a different set of skills, and can never become proficient  in others. I mentioned before that Archaeologists are able to advance pickaxe to Expert making the dwarven mattock a very useful weapon for a long while, and seeing this message is the first step toward that. As you use a weapon or class of spell you gain experience with it, and crossing a threshold means you can advance the skill to the next level, from Unskilled -> Basic -> Skilled -> Expert. Monks have an additional two levels beyond expert for their martial arts skill. You use the command Enhance to advance these.

Here I’ve already advanced my pickaxe skill to Skilled. The reason this doesn’t happen automatically is because each time you advance a skill it consumes a number of skill slots, which you gain one per level as you level. When a skill is available to be advanced it will be highlighted, and skills you’ve reached the maximum level for your class will be marked with a *.

Continuing my wanderings around the dark cavern, I bump into an orc mummy. The undead is no great challenge thanks to my swift mattock skills.

The mummy dropped a corpse and his wrapping as you can see. Corpses dropped by undead monsters are not good for eating, as they are already old and rotten when you kill the monster. There is one type of undead that is an exception to this rule; the wraith, whose corpse will level you up if you can manage to eat it quickly before it disappears completely. In general though, remember which corpses are undead monsters and don’t eat or tin them. The mummy wrapping is a cloak item, and is useful if you happen to be invisible and need to go shopping. A shopkeeper will not allow an invisible character into the shop normally, but wearing a mummy wrapping will render you visible “Invisible Man” style. They aren’t rare though, and I have a cloak so I’m leaving this one here.

Further wanderings and more monsters. I have a bit of trouble with a raven that blinds me with its attacks, and my already rusty cursed helmet is hit by a rust trap and becomes very rusty. The traps in the upper levels of the mines tend to not be as bad as in lower levels, but corroded equipment is never a welcome sight. Wish I had a can of grease to protect things with.

Eventually the stairs down come into view. Perhaps on the next floor there will be a light source I can use to make a level like this one less painful. I take the stairs, and starting in a room with a corridor is a giveaway that I’ve found the town in the mines.

Minetown is the only guaranteed source of shops in the game, and in many (including this one) the first altar you will find. It’s a boon to reach the level but don’t be fooled into thinking it’s a safe haven, as complacency will lead to tragedy. I wander to the next room and am confronted by yet another dwarf.

Watching monsters is a good way to find out about the dungeon. We’ve already seen monsters using potions and how you can find out what they are from watching the effects. You can also easily see if a weapon is cursed by watching a monster wield it. I kill him for his trouble, but not before thanking him for the lesson.

Minetown has its own set of rules and a patrol of watchmen led by a captain to enforce them. You can’t break down or lockpick doors without angering the guards, and if you dip or quaff from the fountains here they will also attack. They aren’t here to protect you for monsters, and a misstep means they will join in the monsters in putting an end to your adventuring career.

Next time, I’ll continue exploring Minetown, see what shops I was lucky enough to get and talk a little about item identifying. Might even be a monster or two. See you then!

The game has in addition to the main dungeon several branches that represent optional or non optional challenges while playing the game. The first of these is the gnomish mines, a several levels deep area that includes cavern levels like the one I am in now, Minetown which is a source of shops and an altar, and the End of the Mines which has a few different variations that all include gems and a luckstone mixed in with loadstones. The in between cavern levels can  be lit or unlit, and thankfully this is a lit level. I can see from the stairs three gnomes, a food ration and a gem in the corner there. Unless your character is a gnome the gnomes in the mines are usually hostile, and these are no exception.

Three or four gnomes rush me on the stairs, and I gain two quick levels. Still surrounded by gnomes but not in any urgent danger, and a dwarf is approaching from the north. Dwarves are a bit different then gnomes in that they tend to be generated lawful, and will be peaceful to a lawful character. This one hates me of course.  Killing the rest of the gnomes and him gains me level 5.

The gnomes were carrying some gems, and that means it’s time for my archaeologist training  to shine. Archaeologists always begin the game with an uncursed touchstone, and can use an uncursed touchstone as other classes can use a blessed one to identify gems and other stones. To do so, we open the extended commands menu (with [#] in this port, and select rub.

Rub prompts you first for what to rub. If this is a touchstone, then it prompts you to rub something on the stone. Here I am picking the two orange stones I picked up.

Worthless glass once identified is truly worthless, only useful as ammunition for a sling. I drop these. Now to check the corpses (and eat a gnome that isn’t too long dead, gnomes are good eating!)

What luck! The dwarf in addition to some armor and coin was carrying a broad pick, which is a dwarvish mattock. This is the weapon I was talking about earlier that is a two hand item and uses the pickaxe skill, which archaeologists can become expert in. A great find, it’s a powerful weapon. I take it, and everything else useful. Wear [W] the shoes and cloak from the dwarf, though wearing armor before you know if it’s cursed can come back to haunt you. These aren’t, thankfully and my AC improves to 7.

A bit more exploring, and I’m ambushed by another gnome and dwarf. This gnome throws a purple-red potion at me, “You feel rather tired.” means it was a potion of sleeping and I fall asleep. Luckily sleep only lasts until I’m attacked, and after my nap I make short work of the pair. This dwarf has a hat and shoes and foolishly I try them on as well in hopes of a better AC. Both are cursed, so my AC remains 7. Around the corner is a ring mail which I can thankfully wear due to the cloak not being cursed, and my AC is improved to 4. A lower armor class at starting levels is worth dealing with some cursed items, but it’s a bad idea to wield a weapon that you haven’t seen a monster wield or otherwise tested as if it is two handed it won’t leave your hands free for anything else!

The first mines level has one more surprise for me as I move toward the exit, a rust trap that rusts my cursed helmet. The mine levels all include a handful of hidden traps that are quite nasty below minetown, but avoidable once you’ve seen them.

The second cavern level is also lit, and also features a mob of gnomes swarming me when I poke my head down. A few trips up to heal then back down to fight and the wave of little people is cleared. I find a sack lying on the ground, with nothing in it.

An annoying thing about the port is it defaults to looting something on the ground if you tap the screen trying to pick it up. Not too difficult to remedy, the command to pick up items is [,] but still requires remembering to do so. I bring the bag along with me.

The only (g)notable monster I run across is a little dog, after leveling to 6 from gnome and gnome lord kills. Normally a pet animal like this would be dangerous to meet early on, but with AC 4 and a mattock I can take it. I could throw [t] a tripe ration and tame it, but I think it would be better to save that for when I’m in trouble against one or can benefit more from the pet. Quick tip – don’t eat the corpses of domestic animals like dogs, cats and ponys. You will get aggravate monster for your troubles, and it will make it much easier for nasties to find you.

Onward to the third cavern level in our next installment, when we stumble blindly through the dark, make rusty things rustier and perhaps stumble upon the town in the mines.

Water demons are one of the weakest types of major demon, but bad news for a new player at only level 1. They have three attacks (claw and bite as well as a weapon swing), are intelligent enough to use scrolls and potions, and have a chance at summoning nasties while attacking (typically other demons). When this one threw a confusion potion at me, I thought it was game over, but I stumbled to the door.

Lucky the confusion only lasted three turns, during which I misstepped once… and luckier that this type of demon is afraid of Elbereth. The E word is a new player’s best friend when facing nasty monsters with powerful melee attacks, as engraving [E] it on the ground will cause them to become afraid and flee. To engrave you select an item or your fingers [-] and write on the floor, up to 10 characters instantly with a fast method (which fingers in the dust is). Finger engravings are easily smudged though, so do it a few times until you see “monster begins to flee!” to be sure it’s working. Using Elbereth I got a few steps ahead of the demon (important here, water demons can follow you on the stairs if they are next to you) and took one of the two stairs down that I had found exploring the level. It happened to lead to DL 3.

Two staircases on a level means a dungeon branch is there, and the first branch you find leads to the Gnomish mines. The mines are tough for a low level character too, so I’m glad to not be in them yet. Still being on DL 3 at level 1 with no pet isn’t a good feeling either, but backward is into the teeth of the demon so we are forging ahead. In the room with the stairs up is a fountain but this time I leave it alone. No use trying to outrun something when I don’t know where I’m running to.

A shop is here, but the shopkeeper has written in the dust “Closed for inventory” and the door is locked. Breaking in would only get me an angry shopkeeper and a quick zap with whatever offensive wand he was generated with as I have no money to pay for the broken door, so will come back later when an angry shopkeeper is not such a problem or I can enter without angering him. If I had access to a key, or a lockpick to unlock the door I could shop here normally.

Later in the level I find a wand, in the room with the downstairs. Wands can be useful items and an early offensive wand is a great weapon against mean monsters. So we will try to identify this one in a safe way, using a technique we already know… Engraving! The first step is to write something in the dust with our fingers again.

Once something is written on the ground already, engrave [E] again but this time with the wand. You may get a message that immediately identifies the wand or you may be prompted to continue with the engraving. Wands are fast engraving methods but just a single character addition is plenty. After engraving you may get another message that will help you identify the wand, or you will get no message. Unfortunately, I got no message for this wand, making it one of opening, locking, secret door detection, probing, undead turning or nothing. I’m not keen to keep using charges to identify it as it isn’t immediately useful so moving on after renaming it.

The rename command is a useful tool when trying to identify items the hard way. I use it a lot in the early game, the same as when the game prompted me to name the potion of confusion. This time I name the wand with it’s original description spiked, and a note that it had no engraving message.

The death of a goblin and a kobold zombie in this level mean I have raised to level 2 when I come to a room with a sink. It’s bad of me, but I’m feeling cheeky after the water demon back on DL 2 and think I may kick this one, to see if my luck is any better. It has to be after the demon right?

Kicking sinks is mostly more bad than good. You have the chance of finding a ring, or of wounding your leg from the kicking. An incubus or succubus can appear, the opposite of your sex. Or, a black pudding can ooze out of the drain and be a general pain due to it’s corrosion and splitting into multiple oozes.

The least useful result is the one I get, unlucky again. Puddings are slow, and I know I can’t kill this one at my level so I’m running once again. At least this time I don’t have to worry about it becoming invisible or throwing potions at me. I run off then continue exploring the level. A couple giant rats attack, and push me to low health before I best them. A nice feature of this port is that the highlight on your character changes color as your health falls, yellow around 50% and then red when low.

It’s a good reminder to wait and regain some health before wandering into trouble again. In the game you can regain health through spells if you are a spellcaster, or potions if you have identified healing potions (fruit juice also restores a bit of health). The most common way though is to wait, as health regenerates slowly every half dozen turns. The port has a button for searching you might have seen, the one labeled [20s] so I use that. The game stops you searching if a monster moves into view, or you hear something so it’s not terribly unsafe.

A room with a red mold sitting on a scroll is the last one I find on this level. Not finding anything else and worried about going further down at low levels I decide to head back up and then attempt the gnomish mines. Back on DL 2, I don’t see the demon (hah!) and make it to the stairs down without incident.

Tune in next time to hear about my travels among the little people, dark rooms and the joys of being an archaeologist. See you then!

Archaeologists start the game with a bullwhip for a weapon and leather jacket and fedora as armor, along with an uncursed touchstone, pickaxe and a tinning kit. I also started with the expected other stuff on me, two food rations and a tripe ration (animal food), as well as a sack to put stuff in. There is a random chance to have other things but I was not lucky enough to get any of them. The highlighted f in the room with me is my tame kitten (the reason for the tripe ration) and also in the room are a statue of a newt ` and a carrot %. The kitten makes it to the carrot before I do, but does not like vegetables so I add it to my inventory. I wield [w] my pickaxe instead of the bullwhip, wanting to gain skill for replacing it with a better weapon later on. The bullwhip is not a bad weapon, but you will never find an upgrade that uses the same skill. Each class starts with different weapons it can become skilled in, so it is good to be on the lookout for one good for the class you begin with.

Dungeon level 1 is pretty uneventful, nothing noteworthy to pick up other than the carrot and a pair of grid bugs that I squished in the corridor. There are only a few rooms, but a long corridor between the start and the down stair to level 2 seems to trip up my kitten. Like a typical cat it doesn’t want to follow and rubs against every wall as I wait for it. I spend a bit over 100 turns waiting and moving to see if it will follow, then give up and move ahead without it. Like my Oliver I think it was a scaredy cat. Bravely and still at level 1 my Digger descends the stairs to DL 2.

On dungeon level 2 I kill a pair of lichens, which are kind enough to leave corpses for me. Lichens are a pretty weak monster you see at the start, and fall easily to my wild pickaxe swings. While in the dungeon, your character will become hungry, and a food shortage or fainting from hunger have killed many an unprepared character. On the other hand it is also bad to be overfilled, as spending time Satiated abuses your statistics. Food can be in short supply because rations are relatively rare and normally you need to rely on the corpses of things to keep your nutrition up. Corpses however go bad very quickly, and eating spoiled food is a bad thing. Lichen corpses (along with lizard corpses) don’t spoil, so picking them up to save for later is a good idea. Other monster corpses you should eat right away if you plan to eat them at all. These two went into my inventory. The tinning kit in my backpack also allows me to save corpses for later, though tins of meat are usually pretty poor nutrition and the kit is better used for other purposes, which maybe we’ll get to later on.

Another hundred turns of exploring go by on DL 2. In NetHack, movement is based on your character or the monster’s rate of movement. Archaeologists start with the Speed intrinsic, meaning that they will move at 4/3 the rate of a normal character of their race (an average of four moves every three turns). A hundred turns is therefore more than a hundred actions, as some pass with me having an extra move. Having Speed from the start means that I am able to outrun most low level monsters, and also affords me some extra attacks during combat. Archaeologists also start with another intrinsic called Stealth, which prevents monsters from being aware of your presence from just movement in most cases. Many types of creature are spawned in the  dungeon asleep, and a character with Stealth can sneak past these sometimes.

I come across a room with a fountain, and decide to quaff. Fountains can be magical, or there’s always the chance of finding a gem. In the best case, you can summon a water demon who will grant you one wish and then leave, on dungeon levels 1-19. In the worse case, that demon may be hostile and kill you. Chances are though this fountain isn’t magical so I’m [q] quaffing.

Hello Mr Demon… I’m lucky! Wait, no I’m not… he’s angry. Time to run away if i can, but first it’s the demons turn to move as I already have by quaffing. The first thing he does is more bad news, he turns invisible.

The message here about being aggravated is because he used a cursed potion to turn invisible. Quaffing a cursed potion of invisibility awakens all sleeping monsters on the level, and shows them your location. When a monster does it, you are awakened if you were asleep and you see the monster. Doesn’t help me in this case, I know exactly where the demon is (or was)

I turn to run out the closest door, and bad thing number three happens. The demon throws a potion at me and I get the message “You feel somewhat dizzy.” This is a potion of confusion, but it doesn’t automatically identify and prompts me to name the type (in normal situations you can only name an item you are holding). Confusion is bad in this case because one of the effects is moving in a direction different than the one you wanted to move. It is going to make running from this demon a lot harder.

Our Digger is in trouble! Will he make it away before the demon decides to drown him in the fountain? Find out next time.

I left this screencap full size so we can talk about the features of the game and how this port works. Up at the top you have the stat and status bar, which lists important attributes about your character and follows you everywhere. My latest character is a human male archaeologist, of neutral alignment named Tom. The stats portion of the bar shows my statistics and my alignment and Digger, which is the title for a level 1 archaeologist. Going to call him Tom (III) because he is the third archaeologist named Tom I’ve played thus far… don’t ask what happened to the first two. The status portion of the bar shows my current dungeon level, money, health and power with totals, armor class, experience level and total and the current turn. When you are affected by a status (hungry, stunned, confused etc) a label shows up in this portion of the bar as well. All of this is important to keep an eye on as the game goes, with the most important of course being your health. The port labels your character with a box that gives indication of health as a color as well, which is a nice touch. Directly below this is the message area, where you see game messages. I’ve just started so the welcome message is displayed.

Down at the bottom (above the phone’s softkeys) is what the port calls the command panel. It is a sliding bar that has most used commands listed, which you can configure based on your playstyle. I haven’t felt the urge to reconfigure mine yet, but it may happen eventually. The first few of these are arguably the most important; the [...] opens the soft keyboard for you to use, the [#] opens a list of the extended commands to pick from and the [20s] and [.] make you search and wait respectively. The rest of these are the other game commands with a [?] at the end that opens a list with the help files for you to look at. Movement can be done either tapping the screen in the direction you want to move (somewhat inaccurate for me) or from the soft keyboard using the letter keys.

In the center is the game screen showing the map of the current dungeon level. The port includes several tile sets as well as the ascii mode i have it set to, if you prefer one then go ahead and use one… I’m a purist. The map can be panned by sliding your finger around, and can be resized by pinching. In NetHack, you see what your character can see, and cannot what they cannot. The map of the level is extended as you uncover it, and can be forgotten due to game effects. Walls, items and objects you have seen but can no longer see are displayed in the locations you remember them, but don’t be surprised if a monster picks up that weapon left on the floor or a dwarf breaks a few walls while you’re away. In a lit room like the one I’ve begun in you can see the entire room, but some rooms and entire levels are dark and require a light source or just plain fumbling in the dark to move around. In the absence of telepathy or sense monsters you only are shown monsters that you can see on the screen.

That’s an introduction to the series, next time my little Digger will move from his starting point and begin the long crawl through the dungeon toward his nearly certain demise. What fun! Hope you come back and join me.

A Pulsar is a type of neutron star that emits electromagnetic energy. The name is short for ‘pulsating star’ as the emission from these is only seen from Earth when the planet’s rotation faces the emission in our direction. In game the Pulsar is a glowing blue star in the distance, similar looking to a Magnetar which as they are both types of neutron star is not unexpected.

The Pulsar gives ships in it’s system a major defensive boost. Armor resistances are increased up to 50% in all four flavors, and shield HP is increased as well. This is balanced partially with a signature radius penalty equal to the increase in shield capacity.

Secondary effects in a Pulsar system are both positive. A bonus to targeting range is complemented by a reduction in capacitor recharge time, meaning even longer that you can run that active tank.

Fly safe everyone, and don’t be like me… take screenshots!

To make it up to you here is a preview of what’s to come in the near future:

A recap of Ganked 25: Jammin’
I trained shitpoasting to 1 and signed up for Failheap Challenge
SOMER gave me harpies and other Blink madness (so addicting)
Another installment of wormhole environmental effects
Shiny pirate frigate is shiny

If you’re itching for something to read in the mean time could I suggest Penny’s rebuttal to Syncaine on mining in wh space. The logistics of moving a mining operation around are not as taxing as you may think.

Until next time.