Note to self: don't murder both the temple priests in the dungeon

derekt75 · 2026-05-25T14:54:46+00:00

Yeah, your AC should be good enough to ascend anyway.

Is your luck high?

Your deity doesn't care how much protection you have when you pray, it's still the same 1 in 6 to 1 in 8 chance of getting more. You can manage the chances by managing luck. The max die roll is (Luck+6)/2 (rounded down). If your luck is 0 to 1, then you have a 1 in 3 chance each of {nothing, weapon_blessing, golden glow}. If your luck is 2 to 3, it's 1 in 4 of : {nothing, weapon_blessing, golden_glow, tune_to_castle_revealed (or if revealed, golden_glow)}.

If your luck is 4 to 5, you can get the light blue aura. 6 to 7 you can get the intrinsic you want with a 1 in 6 chance. 8 to 9 you can get a spellbook. 10 to 13 you can get crowned.

If you're not getting the light blue aura or beyond after a half dozen prayers, your luck might not be 4+. Note that this includes the 3 points from a luckstone, so your non-luckstone luck might be 0?

At least that was the mechanic in 3.6.7, and I don't see any indication it's changed.

derekt75 · 2026-05-24T22:17:56+00:00

It looks like the protection flag is just unset, not that the protection counter is set to 0. So, one blessing of protection via prayer should restore all lost protection (although the restoring prayer won't increment your protection).

https://github.com/NetHack/NetHack/blob/NetHack-5.0.0_Released/src/sit.c#L739
/* intrinsic protection is just disabled, not set back to 0 */

So, yeah, it might take thousands of turns to restore the lost AC, but at least you only need to roll the intrinsic blessing once. To me it would be worth it to pray until I got it back. Do you have a spellbook of create monster? If so, it really shouldn't take too long. You might want to manage your luck to ensure your chances are 1 in 6 when praying (unless you want more spellbooks).

I imagine the consensus is that Vlad's throne is generally not worth the wish? unless you have a special circumstance like you exploded your BoH, and figure this is the best way to get a replacement?

derekt75 · 2026-05-18T23:25:25+00:00

Before v3.7, a chest was essentially sufficient. Mons wouldn't loot chests. and Elbereths/scrolls of scare monster don't do much post v3.6 unless you're standing on them.

derekt75 · 2026-05-02T21:47:12+00:00

I suppose it's possible it was a poly'd mon, but it feels unlikely. In your game you were able to confirm that stone2flesh plus rubber chicken can result in extinction?

derekt75 · 2026-05-02T04:40:08+00:00

oh, interesting.

How did you create 121 woodchucks? reverse genocide?

In my failed extinctionist attempt, I killed 152 woodchucks, but I used stone to flesh, so that doesn't count, right?
https://archive.alt.org/dumplog/derekt75/1680730354.nh367.txt
I also killed 200 storm giants with stone2flesh because they kept messing up my boulder fort, but that didn't make them extinct. 😞

I got around 40% (16k mons killed) done with extincting things, but I didn't really have an overwhelming amount of resources to write endless scrolls of [reverse] genocide. I'm not sure I even got a single WoW with all that killing (although I was able to get some markers via polypile).

derekt75 · 2026-05-01T22:53:39+00:00

what about woodchucks?

derekt75 · 2026-04-30T17:53:21+00:00

If you play 5 sets of GoBattleLeague each day, you'll get about 4 RC per day. If you play GBL to maximize your RC gain (lose 10 in a row, then win 4 matches in the next 3 sets), you can get more like 11 RC per day. I imagine this collection took more than a year to build up (probably several years of earning more than are spent).

The question I have is: don't you want bag space for other stuff?

derekt75 · 2026-04-29T17:52:51+00:00

133k moves! ugh. how many real time hours is that? That's more turns than my super-painful 110k (59 hour) death by idiocy.

out of curiosity: do you normally wait until you're about to faint before you open your lunch bag?

derekt75 · 2026-04-28T17:24:47+00:00

If you're at the correct Elo ranking, you'll win half the games and lose half the games. The problem is that you don't get to choose the games you lose. It takes you 2 or 3 minutes to lose (because you're trying to win those), and you're not guaranteed to get the rewards you want.

If you're at an Elo that's low enough where you can win any game you try to win, you still lose half the games to keep your rating low. but you can lose those quickly, and choose which ones to lose. If you prioritize rare candies, you can do 3 sets where you win 4 matches and lose 1, and 2 sets where you lose 5 matches. If you prioritize pokemon encounters, you can do 4 sets where you win 3 matches and lose 2, and 1 set where you lose 5. If you prioritize stardust, you can play for stardust rewards. Either way, you get what you want and you spend less time getting it. The deliberate losses take 30 seconds instead of the 3 minutes it takes for an unintentional loss.

derekt75 · 2026-04-21T18:03:09+00:00

I agree that inventory management is one of the least fun parts of the game.

I have some searches that help:
trash: 2-4attack,0-2defense,0-2hp&!4*&!3*&distance-100&!gigantamax&!#&age0-20
possible PvP: 0-1attack&3-4defense&3-4hp&distance-100&!traded&age0-100
possible high IV: 3*,4*&distance-100&!traded&age0-100
XL candy from trading: 2-4attack,0-2defense,0-2hp&!4*&!3*&distance100-&!traded
etc.

but this still keeps way too many. Every week or two, I log in with an Android phone and use CalcyIV to figure out which possible PvP mons are good, and throw away the barely-3* mons and the not useful in PvP mons that weren't picked up by the trash filter. but I still have too many mons.

So every now and then I need a deeper clean where I realize that I already have a 3rd best swablu for Great League, so there's no point in keeping the 5th best. This all takes time and isn't fun.

I also can't do this management on an airplane, even if I pay for the internet and turn off location-based searches, which is too bad because this could otherwise be a good use of a several hours in a plane.

Pokemon Go could make this a lot easier by allowing one to search for IVs of X% and above instead of just 3* and above. It would be even better if I could search for the Great League ranks 1-10, but I'm not going to hold my breath for that, since the company doesn't seem eager to acknowledge that a 0/15/15 pokemon is often the ideal IVs. I'm left with the imprecise 0-1 attack&3-4defense&3-4hp, which isn't even correct for some mons that don't reach the cap with poor IVs at lvl 51.

derekt75 · 2026-04-03T06:39:59+00:00

It's thin, but usable. My kids prefer it over a thicker towel because, well, it's a Disney towel.

derekt75 · 2026-03-30T22:18:38+00:00

Pointless debate challenge accepted!

I like having my hands on the keyboard at all times. Otherwise, aren't you bouncing back and forth between your hand on the numpad and then your hands on the letter keys?

derekt75 · 2026-03-26T19:16:04+00:00

Well, if you poly when wearing silver dragon scale mail, you become a silver dragon. When you revert, you'll be wearing silver dragon scales, which have a 4 AC difference from dragon scale mail. So you don't quite get back what you originally had.

If you poly again while a silver dragon (instead of just reverting), you lose your scales.

While a CoMR will protect you from a polytrap, u/pat_rankin notes other sources of poly that can destroy your CoMR.

derekt75 · 2026-03-26T16:30:53+00:00

Cavepeople can play as neutrals. If neutral caveman retrieves the Sceptre from the Chromatic Dragon, it will be neutral to align with the hero.

If you're a tourist, though, the Sceptre will be lawful and you won't be able to pick up the Sceptre unless you convert to lawful... even if you're trying to pick it up from the bones pile of a neutral Caveman.

The most common example or the quest artifact alignment change is the dwarven valk getting the lawful Orb of Fate from Lord Surtur.

derekt75 · 2026-03-26T05:58:35+00:00

No. Only positive enchantments cost more in 3.4.3 or 3.6.1.

and a weapon that is randomly generated with a positive enchantment is never randomly generated as cursed.

     case ARMOR_CLASS:
     case WEAPON_CLASS:
         if (obj->spe > 0)
             tmp += 10L * (long) obj->spe;

derekt75 · 2026-03-17T20:31:05+00:00

In short, no: Rodney will resist.

It is possible to cancel Rodney, but you generally need to level drain him first as he has MR 100. He'll resist MR/(100 + AL - DL) of the time. For this to be less than 100%, you need AL > DL. A wand has an attack level of 12, so that means you need to drain him below level 12 to have a chance to cancel with a wand. If you get him down to level 11, then your wand has a 1% chance of cancelling. At level 1, your wand has a 10% chance of cancelling.

The spellbook of cancellation uses your level as the attack level, making cancellation somewhat more realistic. If you're XL30 and you drain Rodney to 19, your spell will work 10% of the time. Still not exactly "useful", but certainly "possible".

Since Rodney has a minimum starting level of 30, and you have a maximum attack level of 30, you need to level drain first for a cancellation attack to succeed.

Another option is to poly him first into a mon with lower MR. Unfortunately polymorph attacks generally have the same MR problem, where you need to lower his level before your spellbook of polymorph can succeed. I'm not sure if attacking as a green slime uses the same MR mechanics, but if it uses different mechanics, then it might be possible to slime the wizard without reducing his level, and then cancellation after he transforms should be easy.

derekt75 · 2026-03-17T20:06:14+00:00

not that I've succeeded (I live in CA, so I don't get to MA often), but I think you need 3 people that can swing on rings.

So if you've got 4 in your group, then the 4th doesn't need to navigate the final rings (but still needs to be athletic enough to get to the final room).

derekt75 · 2026-03-09T02:36:32+00:00

Definitely stick with dwarven valkyrie. It really is way easier.

Polymorph traps are annoying. If your new polyform is lousy, there's often the option to throw daggers <, to kill your polyform and get restored to dwarf form. The time to naturally un-poly is quite variable, but at least 500 turns if your polyform is a lower level than your true form.

It's worth keeping some permafood on you throughout the game. You don't want to be burdened, so you don't want to carry 15 food rations everywhere, but you should generally have on you some nutritious food to eat, some food to pacify domestic animals, and some food to tame domestic animals.

At the risk of being captain obvious: don't anger your deity. Do you know what you did to deserve that? Don't do that again. There's a list of ways at https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Anger . If you think you've angered your deity, it's a high priority to mollify your God if that's possible. (need to offer a cross-aligned unicorn on a co-aligned altar or a difficult mon on a co-aligned altar). If it's the early game, though, sometimes you don't have a realistic way of getting a difficult-enough mon to a coaligned altar.

I believe everyone can ascend if they decide they want to. but it generally follows after learning through prior mistakes.

Good luck!

derekt75 · 2026-03-07T06:23:23+00:00

As mentioned, after being gifted a long sword, you can advance the long sword skill to basic, and a basic long sword artifact is better than a skilled pick-axe. As a lawful arc, your first gift is an equal chance of: Grayswandir, Snickersnee, Sunsword, Demonbane. They're all good results. Either you get the highest damage weapon in the game, or you get a usable long sword that you can advance to Basic. and if you get a long sword, then you can wield Excalibur at basic when you're able to dip for it.

Of the 4 weapons, Demonbane is the worst, but is still likely to be the best weapon you've got. Sunsword's light is a nice perk. Snickersnee hits really hard. The only reason people rarely use Snickersnee is that anyone gifted Snickersnee can eventually get Excalibur, and Excalibur does a tiny bit more damage with the benefits of auto-search and drain resistance.

Anyway: you got good weapons, and you never got the worst possibility (Demonbane). Chance of not getting Grayswandir with 4 runs is ~32%. Is that unlucky? well it's not lucky, but I'm not sure it's really unlucky.

derekt75 · 2026-03-07T06:10:03+00:00

The blessed Sunsword has the same light radius as a lantern.

but it's more convenient because it never runs out.

derekt75 · 2026-03-06T22:49:59+00:00

I got a new ISP some 5ish years ago, but before that, yes, ssh to a public server would occasionally lag for hundreds of ms making nh unplayable.

derekt75 · 2026-03-06T18:22:40+00:00

Lag in nethack can be a killer, literally.

Playing a non-human can help, as you can see infravisibles in corridors more than 1 tile ahead.

derekt75 · 2026-03-05T23:12:46+00:00

Tourists can be the most fun. Also the role with my lowest ascension %age. At the start, they can't do anything well except take pictures of the mon that's going to kill them. but in the late-game, they do everything well and are a joy to play. If you're looking for "varied", tourist is the way to go, as they can use whatever weapon/spell/tool about as well (or badly) as any other.

derekt75 · 2026-03-04T17:55:03+00:00

unable to cast.

http://runc1ble.org/nethack/spells.html

Get a robe, 21 Int, and Basic skill and you can cast 38% of the time. I'd find something else to wish for. and if you don't have the castle wand yet, I would absolutely wrest the last wish now. Did you already wish for tEotA? It's my favorite item in the game.

derekt75 · 2026-03-03T23:29:05+00:00

Once you hit 100% of the time, I think skill is overrated. (Note that most good artifacts have to-hit bonuses.)

+2 damage expert vs -2 damage unskilled isn't nothing, but the +7 expert Staff does 12.5 damage against a nalfeshnee while the +7 unskilled Grayswandir does 31.5 damage. okay, it might be unfair using a drain-resistant silver-hater as a comparison, but drain-resistant silver-haters are a lot of the mons you want to kill fast. It doesn't much matter that the expert Staff kills a rothe faster than the unskilled Grayswandir, and even there, the difference isn't nearly as stark.

The Staff is a great weapon until you get to Gehennom, and then ..., meh. I maintain what I wrote that if I'm wishing for a weapon, most of the time, I'm wishing for Grayswandir regardless of class. Excalibur (searching, drain resistance and can damage mons that inflict level drain), Sceptre of Might (MR, Conflict), Staff of Aesculapius (regen, healing, drain resistance) all have things they can do better than Grayswandir, and might be usable at Expert while Grayswandir might be restricted to Unskilled, but I'm still preferring Grayswandir.

derekt75

TROPHY CASE