Movement tactics

Most of your turns are spent moving around the dungeon, so it is wise to do so quickly and efficiently; the rules of movement in roguespace are eventually intuitive, but like all things in NetHack, there are tricks and exceptions.

Roguespace cardinal directions
There are 8 cardinal directions in NetHack:

y k  u   \ | / \|/ h---@---l /|\  / | \  b  j  n

(For the purposes of throwing and casting, "up", "down" and "towards yourself" are valid directions too).

Certain ranged attacks of monsters only work when in line with you along one of the cardinals. These include thrown projectiles, breath attacks, venom, and zapped wands. Other attacks, such as a pyrolisk's gaze, Medusa's stare, and spells, can work from any position within a certain range. In the following example, you are safe from the dragon, but not from the pyrolisk:

........... ........... ....@...... .D......... ........c.. ...........

Fighting in corridors
In the following example, killer bees are moving towards you:

-   -- |.......|    |....a...| |...@....#####.aaa....| |.......|   |..aa..... -   --

If you stay where you are, they will swarm around you on 8 sides and very likely finish you off. If you move into the corridor, only one can be adjacent to you at once, allowing you to pick them off one at a time. Corridors are thus an excellent place to fight.

Be aware that corridors are not lit (though see the lit_corridor option), so monsters may be approaching you in the dark parts!

Diagonal movement
If you are using the arrow keys to move, you are as good as dead. Switch to either the numpad or the [yuhjklbn] keys, and you have access to diagonal movement, which can as much as double the efficiency of your moves (moving two spaces north, then two spaces east can be accomplished by moving two spaces northeast).

Reaching the door in 3 moves:

-  -   -   - |..q....|   |.......|   |.......|   |.......| |....@..|  |...q.@.|   |....q.@|   |.......| |.......+  |.......+   |.......+   |.....q@+ -  -   -   -

Reaching the door in 2 moves:

-  -   - |..q....|   |.......|   |.......| |....@..|  |...q.@.|   |.......| |.......+  |.......+   |....q.@+ -  -   -

Clearly, making good use of diagonal movement will save your life - possibly more than any other single playing tip.

Beartraps
For some reason, escaping a beartrap is 5 times more likely when moving diagonally than when moving orthogonally. .

Doors
Doorways cannot be passed diagonally. This creates a tactical challenge when escaping through one, but since the restriction applies to monsters too, it can be useful for creating bottlenecks.

In Fort Ludios, standing on the square shown allows you to kill soldiers as they come through the door one at a time, while also protecting you from thrown potions and wand zaps from the horde (since you are not in line with any of them along a cardinal direction).

|........ ---...... |.....|...... |.....+...... |...@.|...... |.....|...... |..-+.... |..|....|.... |..|..^.|.... ---..          |..

Passing small gaps
In the following mine level, the character can only move southwest if his total inventory weight is 600 or less. Otherwise, "You are carrying too much to get through."

---         .--      ---|.....---   --..|@......|   |....--.--..|  --. --

This limit applies to all tight gaps, not just those in the Gnomish Mines.

Northwest danger
If using the vi-keys, be cautious when moving northwest ([y]) around peaceful creatures. [y] is also the command to say yes to a question such as "Really attack the watchman?", and it's nearly always a good idea to answer no.

Boulders
Boulders can be pushed around, but are otherwise impassable to characters carrying items. If your inventory is completely empty, "you can squeeze yourself into a small opening" and occupy the same square as the boulder.

Jumping
Knights can jump naturally, but only in the shape of a chess knight's jump. Casting the spell of jumping allows you to jump to the following locations, depending on your skill in the escape category (unskilled, basic, skilled, or expert):

eee esbubse suuuuus ebuuuuube euuu@uuue ebuuuuube suuuuus esbubse eee

Jumping boots let you jump as if casting the spell unskilled. All types of jumping require that you can see the target square, happen in one turn, and consume d25 nutrition. This means jumping is faster than walking with speed boots.

You can jump out of pits, webs, and lava, and also beartraps, but doing the latter wounds one of your legs for 500 to 1499 turns and causes d10 damage.

Moving through crowds
Teleport control allows instant movement to any square on any teleport-enabled level. For non-teleport levels, teleportation still works on monsters, so zapping a wand of teleportation at a crowd is the best way to clear a path through them.

A ring of conflict can also help, firstly by distracting monsters from you, and secondly by reducing, through combat, the HP of any monster you do have to kill to get past.

The Plane of Air
Movement on the plane of air is controlled only if you are levitating or flying. Otherwise, only 1 in 4 of your attempts to move is successful.