Save scumming

When playing Nethack on a local machine (ie. not on a server such as NAO), it is possible to sidestep the feature that makes Nethack so difficult: the permanence of death. The concept is simple: exit Nethack via the Shift-S save command, then copy the saved game to a different directory. Run Nethack again, and continue playing until you die. At this point restore the saved files from the temporary directory and restart the game. Assuming the correct files were copied, the game continues as it was.

Experience
Nethack is designed so that death is permanent (except for the amulet of life saving, of course). This adds difficulty to the game, but also adds depth. When making a mistake might cost you a week of gameplay, one thinks longer about each action, and investigates more fully the possible repurcussions. It also adds excitement: taking risks with a careful cultivated character becomes more exhilerating when the stakes are higher.

Player skills
While savescumming may allow a new player to go farther in the dungeon than he or she has before, it is widely believed that it will ultimately create a weaker player than if he or she had toughed it out. By saving and restoring games the savescummer is avoiding learning the intricacies of Nethack, and will never learn the art of extracting him or herself from difficult positions. Death is part of the game, and a player who savescums to avoid death is not truly playing Nethack.

There are many roleplaying games that allow you to avoid death by saving and restoring your game. By savescumming, a player is missing out on the true fun of the game, at which point Nethack is hardly superior to any other RPG available.

Methodology
The methods by which Nethack saves games differ per version. Similarly, the saved games are not necessarily compatible between versions or between platforms.

The easiest way to savescum is to start a brand new game. Once it is started, examine the directories in which Nethack is storing data and find one with a name similar to "save". Now save and exit the game. Examine the directory again, and see what files have appeared. Make a list of the files and the filename syntax (usually the player name with a number). Now restart the game and let the character die. Once again, examine the directory and see which files dissapeared. After doing this you should have a good idea of what files hold the game's information.

Scripts can then be written to speed the process up.

Note that you cannot save a running game, as the game file is only created when you save and exit.