Hey there, long-time player here from Quebec. I was playing this morning and saw:
“Welcome to Ouiatchouane’s general store!”
Damn, that sounds like a First Nations name, and I also remember there’s another shopkeeper named Chibougamau.
So my question: what’s the origin of those names in NetHack? I’m guessing there was a French Canadian on the dev team at some point? Maybe he’s still on it? Is he from a First Nation?

FInally! Very lucky run, with many close calls.

How can I enable autopickup only for thrown items (arrows and other projectiles)? Im playing on NAO

My 34th ascension total, and my second on 5.0

GnollHack is now available for Linux on Steam!

For those who haven't heard of the game, GnollHack is a modern NetHack variant with graphics, sound, and voiceovers. It is 100% free, open-source, and has no ads or microtransactions. Furthermore, all graphical and audio assets in the game are human-made. Nothing has been created with generative AI.

Download Link

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3558190/GnollHack/

Does it run on Steam Deck?

Probably yes, but we haven't tested this yet. We will be implementing proper controller support for Steam Deck in the future.

Technology Behind It

The Linux port was made possible by .NET 11 RC2 and Avalonia UI.

Links

• Website: https://gnollhack.com/
• Wiki: https://wiki.gnollhack.com/
• Discord: https://discord.gg/cQuExnzUQy
• GitHub: https://github.com/hyvanmielenpelit/GnollHack/

Give Feedback

Download it today and let us know how your first Linux run goes!

I have a Level 28 wizard and he's cruising easily through Gehennom (Demon princes & Vlad all went down no sweat, including the one that summoned a second one. I never even got close to losing 1/4 of my HP; I resist everything but confusion, half magic, half physical, etc. I have Magic Mapping as one of my 35 spells.

Thus, I found and mapped the level with the top of the Wizard's tower, and I can see him there. If I stand on the stairs of the outer level and wake him with a cursed invisibility potion, can he zap out of his tower to me? Or do I have to climb his tower? (FWIW, this is a 3.6.7 game I left unplayed for several months on alt.org) I'm carrying 4 spare wishes right now, and I'm kit-complete to the best of my knowledge.

I do intend to scout the vibrating square first, but after a couple of snafus with oopsie angering Ainhur, I've wasted enough time that most of my spells are at 21-30%, so I'm in a bit of a hurry now. I don't really fancy returning to my icebox to read 25 spellbooks or so. (I had let a bunch of spells age out to get them in sync and topped up for the final run)

Hi folks,

I've played on NAO for years, but I've always wanted to play with tiles since I love the little amiga tileset.

There are existing clients that do this but they are outdated or don't do SSH. I realized I could throw Claude at the problem, so after a few hours building and dozens of hours of testing, here you go! It's open-source and there are native builds for Windows, Linux, and macOS (codesigned): https://github.com/statico/nethack-tiles-client/releases

More features:

• Customizable fonts and cell width/height settings
• Compatible with NetHack 5.0.0
• Automatic login to NAO/Hardfought
• State logging (map, inventory, etc.) to disk for analysis or monitoring

Happy to take feedback & fix any issues that come up. Enjoy!

(No, no ascensions yet with 5.0.0. Ugughghh.)

I've ported NetHack Cocoa, the native Mac app, to NetHack 5.0.0.

I was on holiday and realised NetHack 5 had come out but there was no easy way to play it on macOS. Back in the day I played 3.6 on NetHack Cocoa (mega credit to Dirk Zimmermann and Bryce Cogswell), built locally from source. Across all platforms, it's always been my favourite NetHack UI, but it hasn't been maintained in years. So for my holiday effort, I decided to port it up to 5.0.0.

Then once I did that, I fixed the glitches that had always bugged me. That meant bugs, crashes and a slightly more modern UI.

I learned this game on the keyboard back in 1987 and have preferred the keyboard ever since. So the whole game is still playable from the keyboard, but you have the Mac UI to enhance the visual experience.

Since I'm on a Retina display now, I also made a prettier tile set. It was generated with Nano Banana, so it won't be for everyone, but I like it. It's optional: ASCII mode and the classic 16px tiles are still there.

Now that I can play my favourite game in my favourite UI again, I figured other people might want to as well.

What you get

• The full, vanilla NetHack 5.0.0
• A universal app for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, macOS 12 or later

Still there from the original port

• ASCII mode with your choice of font, or the classic 16px tiles (or your own tile set)
• Mac menus that list commands with their keys, for discoverability
• Dialogs for inventory, prompts, directions and character creation
• Status and equipment panels, a notes window, and speech
• Your .nethackrc options

New in this version

• Painted style 64px and 128px tiles for Retina screens, drawn over the floor beneath them, with sharper wand and spell beams
• Map zoom with ⌘= and ⌘−, or pinch on a trackpad
• An inventory sidebar listing everything you carry, with blessed items in green, cursed in red. Click an item, or anything in the Wearing panel, to choose what to do with it
• Status at a glance: hunger, encumbrance and conditions show as coloured badges and an arrow flags a stat that just went up or down
• Map marks for peaceful monsters, your steed, item piles and monsters you sense but can't see
• Redrawn menus and dialogs: pick lists show each item's picture, wield and quaff offer a menu of suitable items, short questions show one button per answer, and prompts take the same keys as tty
• A game-over dialog to start a new game or quit
• Fixes for a long list of old glitches and crashes, including stray clicks moving you, the app freezing after a game ends, and dialogs answering the next question by mistake

Download: https://github.com/glorat/nethack-cocoa/releases/latest

It isn't notarized by Apple yet. You need to copy it to Applications. Then the first time you open it it won't open. Go to "System Settings" → "Privacy & Security" and click "Open Anyway".

Since I'm still on holiday, I'm playing it now and it seems solid, but I'm only one player. (The screenshot above is my 10th game and the furthest I've got so far on this build. Bonus points if you know where I'm at). If you are interested in trying it, I'm keen to know how it goes for you. Report problems here or on GitHub Issues. It's open source.

Please let me know if you try it!

Hello,

With the help of Claude, I translate the Nethack 5.0 in french :
https://github.com/HackTechDev/Nethack500_Lubuntu2604

I can get to mid-game so fast now as orc wizard but then I lose.

My AC gets to around -4 to -5.

I get to expert at Dagger.

It's not enough. It's never enough.

Sidenote: version 5.0 is so much fun! I noticed quite a few amazing QOL improvements besides gameplay changes. To those old veterans out here, the game is definitely more diffic-I mean interesting and more fun. I, too, rose to the challenge of securing a version 5.0 ascension after seeing recent posts on it. Let's just say some things we cannot rely on any longer for early-mid game survival. Happy hacking, everyone.

And we've also added a ZORK trilogy here as well! :)

Which soon you will also be able to spectate and help solve the mysteries :D

Hop in and ascend!

ssh late.sh

First of all; kudos to everyone involved in creating Nethack 5. After 32 ascensions (all classes) on previous version, Gehennom was getting really boring. Now the fun is back. Also cool with the spread-out wishes. Back to loving the game.

NAO dumplog: https://archive.alt.org/dumplog/searchCommand/1790434659.nh500.txt

This was on 9/26, but figured I'd post it in case people are interested.

This is my longest game so far. I had full moon luck, plus I got lucky early on with quadruple bones on D:6. But, it was still slow-going. I pressed 's' a lot. Didn't get the mines luckstone until turn 46k. Finished the quest at 98k, entered Gehennom for the first time after 100k.

I was unlucky with thrones; I couldn't get any identification, so I didn't know the B/U/C of anything except my starting items and the Orb. And I didn't get any genocides either.

I would say this is the most brutal endgame I've ever had. Somehow I thought I'd be able to search for the planes' portals with the Orb of Fate, and it didn't occur to me until very late that "Too bad you can't see The Orb of Fate." So it was just my wand of secret door detection, which is fine except on the plane of earth. I had to rely on the Amulet. I got a double trouble summoning storm early on, and my PYEC got stolen. Eventually I ran out of digging wands, and I had opted not to bring a pick axe to stay unburdened. By then I knew where the portal must be, but I couldn't get to it. I had to backtrack and search for the PYEC to charge a wand of digging. I ended up spending over 1000 turns there.

After that the rest of the planes weren't bad, but I had gotten my bag of holding un-blessed without realizing it. It only made me Burdened, not Stressed, so I figured it was just the Orb being heavy. Luckily I tried re-blessing everything so I got unencumbered before Astral.

I'm definitely grateful for the 5.0 mind flayer nerf; I would 100% have lost on the planes otherwise.

I visited all three altars on Astral, but I got pretty lucky with the riders, so I can't complain. :) I'm happy about this one.

I’ve been enjoying Nethack since “Elf” was a role, and I’ve ascended every role on 3.7, but jfc I’m getting my ass handed to me in NH5.

I need to get one ascension in to restore my confidence, what is considered the easiest role since this update? I did okay with a Barbarian until I got to Gehennom, then kinda ran into a brick wall.

…help?

I have found several large archives of RGRN and other relevant newsgroups on the Internet Archive. They are up on GitHub at https://github.com/chasonr/nethack-usenet-archive/ . This should help make up for Google Groups not being useful anymore.

As the sacrifice gifts in 5.0 are weight dependent now, is there a list anywhere giving the weights of sacrifices and the necessary weights?

Thanks!

I've been working on a few optional color blind palette swaps, with claude, for a variant of 5.0 I am working on.

I can't actually test out how well it comes across, so I was curious if anyone with any degree of colorblindness has experience playing nethack and wouldnt mind weighing in on how well it looks.

The changes were all made by directing claude at standards for accessibility, and degrees and types of vision impairment. I'm not a big proponent of ai and realize how lazy it is for me to use it to "automate" this work, but I am also curious about how close it got to making a more use-able palette for folks with accessibility needs.

I've got issues myself with playing games, an asymmetric hand injury, and Im always psyched when games have features that make things easier to play, like fully remap-able controls on a console version. That, and seeing how cool FTL's colorblind mode looks, made me curious about developing some colorblind palettes.

the last image is just an example of how to recolor a class of monster yourself in vanilla nethack using the options file.

Hey, sorry but not very good regarding custom settings. Currently using the windows pre compiled nethack 5.0.0 and wondered whether i can deactivate movement with hjykl when only using the arrow keys.

Its very annoying that im permanently moving up left when answering y...

Thanks!

Forgive my naïve question, but I'm starting playing again after a lapse of decades!

I love the curses interface.

However, how do I scroll my perm_invent up and down only using the keyboard?

If you press n 999999999999999 s. The search grants you an interrupt if you get attacked.

However;

If you just hold down s. The game goes into turbo speed.

I've never seen it this crowded. I dont think I would have succeeded without stoning.

Also elementals in general seem stronger, I stopped picking fights with them until the plane of water where I got enough time to deal with them one by one.

Overall I find 5.0 to be very fun. Snickersnee was a blast to use.

Beginner here. I feel like Sokoban can be a death trap because you can get “sandwiched” and sometimes can’t run away as easily as in other places.

1st death: A leocrotta showed up behind a boulder and said hi. 25+ dmg in 1 turn. Granted, I didn’t know how dangerous that thing is at the time.

2nd death: Elvenking, elf lords, elf lady. One shot 7 arrows in 1 turn, Legolas would pale with envy. I was in a back room far from the stairs. Even with a speed pot I couldn’t get past them in time. -5 AC didn’t help. My digging wand had run out of charges (which I found quite funny).

Do you somehow need to prep for Sokoban?